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EU Commission Confirms Threat of Not Re-paying Expenses on Dodgy Tender
Thursday 03 June 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Brussels, June 3 (TASR-CORRESPONDENT) - The European Commission is looking into a tender announced by the Slovak Agriculture Ministry in 2006 for informatisation of the Agricultural Payment Agency (PPA) and has confirmed that it may not re-pay its portion if it is proven that the public procurement didn't take place in accordance with the valid rules.
TASR has been provided this information by spokesman of the EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Roger Waite.
"We sent a letter on May 21 in which we required an explanation of the process of the circumstances of the technical assistance implementation via the Rural Development Programme. We've asked the Slovak side to reply and describe the procedures that have been carried out since the tender was announced until now. We're also asking whether any financial means from the programme have already been released for the winning bidder," said Waite.
The tender was announced in 2006 but carried out during the tenure (2007-08) of former LS-HZDS MP Zdenka Kramplova (a deserter from the party during this term and now is standing for the new AZEN - Alliance for a Europe of Nations) as minister. After Kramplova was ousted, her successor Stanislav Becik filed a criminal complaint in order to proclaim the contract with the winning bidder invalid. Becik has also been ousted later and Vladimir Chovan, who took up the office after him, withdrew the complaint. Since then, the contract has been fulfilled via a special clause in the contract.
"In this way the ministry re-activated the tender... which had been labelled by the Public Procurement Office (UVO) as non-transparent. We've warned them that not meeting the rules of the public procurement has an influence on the justifiability of re-payment of the expenses," Waite informed.
The European Commission has continued waiting for the reply from Slovakia. "We haven't yet received a response," he said.
According to Katarina Belicka from the Agriculture Ministry press department, the winning bidder has been paid €3.97 million including VAT for capital expenses and €1.84 million including VAT for common expenses. She added that the financial means from the given programme haven't been exhausted yet, as the project has been covered from state financial sources.
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