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Miklos: Slovakia Could Have Lost €200 Million In OPIS Projects
Thursday 21 Octtber 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, October 21 (TASR) - The Finance Ministry has put a stop to all approved projects of the operational programme 'Information Society' (OPIS) that could be stopped and carried out analyses to identify items which will be classified by the national certification authority or by the European Commission as unauthorised.
"Unauthorised expenditures would have to be covered from the state budget or (the money) returned back to the EU. Thusly, Slovakia could have lost more than €200 million," Finance Minister Ivan Miklos (SDKU-DS) said in Parliament on Thursday. The audit also determined that future operational costs for electronic public administration projects launched by the former government will be twice as high as originally estimated.
"Based on the analysis of the OPIS projects, the electronic services would have never worked the way they were supposed to – with the state having to continually fund them. In all likelihood, they would have cost citizens more than they do in the current paper form," said Miklos.
Officials at the Finance Ministry see great latitude for lowering the costs. "Talks with suppliers are underway. Some projects and contracts will be scrapped and new, more favourable conditions for the state will be re-negotiated," added Miklos.
Former finance minister Jan Pociatek (Smer-SD) in response to the audit findings introduced by Mikos questioned the legitimacy of the commission which carried out the audit, indicating that that's why the conclusions presented by Miklos are unreliable. At the same time, Pociatek rejected any allegations that the items under the OPIS projects were overpriced.
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