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Meciar Decries Fact that Slovakia Immersed in Corruption
Friday 26 March 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, March 26 (TASR) - Slovakia is soaked with corruption, including at the regional and municipal level, with 'scoopers' of kickbacks from state subsidies running criss-cross the country, co-ruling LS-HZDS chair Vladimir Meciar said at a press conference on Friday.
The former three-times premier (1990-91, 1992-94 and 1994-98) wasn't willing to name anybody involved in corruption, however, he said merely that such practices are in place and must be halted.
"The principle of prevention, transparency and higher punishments must be introduced. If we don't observe these principles, we won't change anything and we'll stagger further," he said.
Meciar focused on the ongoing scandal surrounding Slovakia's surplus carbon-dioxide emission quotas at a suspiciously low price to the Interblue Group. "What was said isn't the entire truth, there's a lot of unexplained things. It has damaged the state's name and led to Slovakia falling in the 2009 corruption ranking," he stated.
He further claimed that the Interblue case has also shown weak points of the recently adopted Property Origin Disclosure Act. "Those who made a fortune (from the emission deal) will be able to prove the origin of their property, as they have contracts," said Meciar.
Turning back to fighting corruption, Meciar said that a similar programme should be adopted as the one in the Czech Republic in 2006, which was cast aside due to political instability in the country, however. "The programme isn't bad ... some 80 percent of it can be applied," said Meciar.
Among the measures, Meciar suggested using lie detectors, introducing screening checks by the Supreme Audit Office (NKU) for persons allocating public money, and a 10-year ban on holding post in the state administration in cases where any misconduct related to corruption is proven.
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