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Lipsic: Interior and Justice Ministers Try to Cover Up Shady Tender
Monday 18 January 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, January 18 (TASR) - Slovakia's interior and justice ministries are attempting to cover up the suspicious €800 million tender of the Interior Ministry, Christian Democrats (KDH) Vice-chair Daniel Lipsic said at a press conference on Monday.
"That's the reason why Interior Minister (Robert) Kalinak as well as Justice Minister Petrikova are so irritated in their responses. We hit a touchy subject," said Lipsic.
He reacted to a statement made earlier on Monday by Justice Minister Viera Petrikova (a LS-HZDS nominee), according to which the Justice Ministry under Lipsic's tenure was paying 100 percent more than what it should for cleaning services.
Justice Minister Petrikova said this in the wake of criticism levelled by Lipsic at the cleaning services tender of the Interior Ministry. According to Petrikova, the cleaning services are provided for 19 cents per square metre, whereas under Lipsic's tenure the charge was 40 cents per square metre.
"Any calculations need to be based upon the time when the tender was announced and finalised, as back then one euro had a value of 45 korunas, and not the current exchange rate of 30 korunas per euro," said Lipsic. He added that the winner of the tender for cleaning services during his tenure won with an Sk800,000 - the lowest bid of all contenders that included also the use of cleaning products for free – so, in Lipsic's view the cost was less than with Kalinak's new tender.
According to Lipsic, it's absurd that the cleaning services have been carried out by prison inmates – who have no business to move around the ministry's premises in the first place. He likened it to the prospect of inmates cleaning up police stations, with plenty of access to sensitive information at hand.
"Using incarcerated convicts for cleaning has lowered cleaning costs for the Justice Ministry by more than 100 percent," emphasised Petrikova.
"Until 1999, the Justice Ministry's premises were cleaned by internal employees. This model proved quite expedient, due to low costs involved. However, under former minister Jan Carnogursky, this was abolished and the cleaning services provided by private companies has been introduced not only at the ministry but also for the Slovak courts," Petrikova pointed out.
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