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Jurena: Property Disclosure Act Nothing But Marketing Political Game
Saturday 13 February 2010 Zoom in | Print page
(Slovak Radio, February 13, 'Sobotne dialogy')
The proposed Bill on Disclosing the Origin of Property is nothing but a marketing political game to gain votes at the upcoming Parliamentary elections, said LS-HZDS MP Miroslav Jurena on Slovak Radio's weekly debate show 'Sobotne dialogy' (Saturday Dialogues) on Saturday.
He added that LS-HZDS is for curbing the corruption and disclosing the origin of property. However, the party representatives don't approve of transferring the burden of proof on to the citizens, and also object to the vaguely defined retro-activity of the Act.
"The key question here is whether this proposal is designed to curb corruption in Slovakia or it's just political parties trying to impress their voters with only months to the Parliamentary elections," said Jurena.
He added that the proposal is populistic and full of imperfections. When asked whether LS-HZDS would file with the Constitutional Court if the proposal passes, Jurena said that would be like tilting at windmills. "We'll let this proposal come into effect, so people can see in practice the nonsense that is the Disclosure Act. We'll let everyone see how 'effective' this Act will be in curbing corruption," emphasised Jurena.
The ethnic-Hungarian SMK Chairman Pal Csaky said that although having doubts over certain legal details, his party representatives voted in favour of the proposal. Some affluent people can't explain how they acquired their property, a phenomenon, said Csaky, that demoralises the society.
He also has a problem with suspicious companies of unclear financial backgrounds that get involved in public procurement processes or financing of the political parties. According to Csaky, this issue will have to be addressed at the European level.
Csaky thinks that every contender for a public contract should transparently reveal its proprietary structure, especially when the risk of misappropriation of public finances is involved. This holds true as well in cases of political parties getting financed via garage companies, which represents an even more delicate issue, said Csaky.
LS-HZDS also rejects the eventuality of having shady companies involved in public tenders. Jurena pointed out to the case of former agriculture minister Zdenka Kramplova (a LS-HZDS nominee at the time) who was dismissed because she concluded a contract unfavourable to state. "We immediately stepped in, without having anyone telling us to take action," he said.
According to Jurena, there have been a number of confidential contracts concluded by former and current governments. "Why do we sign contracts like these?" he wondered, adding that agreements of this kind are "an absolute nonsense".
The two politicians concurred that LS-HZDS as well as SMK are willing to publish their accounting books for public to see.
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