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SDKU-DS: Fico's Social State Is Anything But Social
Thursday 25 February 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, February 25 (TASR) - SDKU-DS MP Ivan Stefanec said on Thursday that he and his party colleagues plan to pay a personal visit to social enterprises, and asked Labour Minister Viera Tomanova (a Smer-SD nominee) for an inspection report on public procurement practices at these companies.
"If Ms. Tomanova publicly claims that her Ministry has done its utmost in supervising the social enterprises, then there's no reason for her not to share the inspection results (with MPs)," said Stefanec.
Mistakes, potentially threatening Slovakia's access to drawing eurofunds, have already emerged in the Labour Ministry's original project, based on which the eight pilot social enterprises have been established. For these mistakes, Stefanec thinks, someone at the Ministry should be held accountable.
He also added that if the deformation of economic competition represents the only problem related to these social companies, currently under investigation by the European Commission, then they're okay.
"We need to find atypical ways to create jobs – thus, in this respect, the social enterprises are all right. However, if the Commission finds anything else, we'll need to seriously address that," he emphasised.
As far as the worsening social situation goes, Stefanec pointed out that Slovakia had 291,345 unemployed in July 2006 (when the current Government took power). In January this year, however, that figure climbed to 391,499. According to SDKU-DS, the Labour Ministry's total expenses in relation to the GDP went down, and the social welfare benefits (ex inflation) have dropped by 14.6 percent in 2006-2010. "That's a 'social state' in the Robert Fico version," said Stefanec.
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