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Miklos Considering Filing Court Complaint Against Harabin
Thursday 05 August 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, August 5 (TASR) - Finance Minister Ivan Miklos said on Thursday that he believes that Supreme Court chairman Stefan Harabin is abusing public office by obstructing a ministerial audit at the Court and that he's having the legal grounds for filing a criminal complaint against him examined.
Harabin has been refusing to allow Finance Ministry officials to audit the Court's accounts for nearly two weeks, arguing in writing to the ministry on Wednesday that the only body competent to audit the Supreme Court is the Supreme Audit Office (NKU), as the Court uses funds approved in Parliament.
"Such an opinion is wrong and absurd because the Supreme Court falls under the state budget, all of which is checked by the Government's audit," said Miklos.
If Harabin continues to hold out against the ministry, Miklos intends to slap another fine of €33,000 on the Court and one of €1,000 on its chief, as he did last week.
Harabin said in response to Miklos that he's looking forward to seeing how he'll be hunted simply for acting in line with the law. In Harabin's opinion, by not allowing FinMin auditors into the Supreme Court he actually prevented Miklos from violating laws and attacking the independence of the judiciary.
According to Harabin, the whole matter is a plot hatched by Miklos's coalition colleagues - former justice minister Daniel Lipsic and the incumbent Lucia Zitnanska. He believes that the current moves represent their attempt to take revenge.
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