Zuzana Melicherčíková, a former Comenius University employee who lost her job after exposing apparently murky practices in the admission of students to the university’s Law Faculty has been hired by the Labour Ministry. It has offered her a job in the public procurement department.
Milan Kozický, the head of the Labour Ministry’s civil service office, who offered Melicherčíková her new job, said that the ministry believes Melicherčíková will ensure that ministry procurement will be in accordance with laws and ethical standards, the SITA newswire reported. Melicherčíková said she was grateful that the ministry had offered her an interesting job.
In 2010, Melicherčíková was awarded a White Crow prize by the NGOs Fair-Play Alliance and Via Iuris. The prize recognises people who try to change society for the better while being subjected to significant personal risk.
While an employee of Comenius University Faculty of Law, Melicherčíková reported the unexplained admission of a group of students despite other, better qualified applicants being rejected. The group of admitted students already had one degree, worked as tax advisers and were admitted after submitting an appeal against non-admission containing the same text and an identical grammatical mistake. Melicherčíková found no documentation about them not being admitted to the faculty.
Melicherčíková had a long-standing disagreement with the head of her department, which the dean had refused to resolve; she therefore left the job and filed a motion with the prosecutor's office regarding the admissions practice. However, the filing was refused on the grounds that the admissions procedure is within the competence of a public university.
Source: SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
