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Fico Vows to Crack Down Harder on Corruption and Clientelism
Thursday 01 April 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, April 1 (TASR) - Corruption and clientelism are a serious problem with a long tradition and deep roots in Slovakia, but there's no point in comparing the rate of occurrence under various governments, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said at a meeting with representatives of the French-Slovak Chamber of Commerce in Bratislava on Thursday.
According to the chairman of the main governing-coalition Smer-SD party, Smer is ready to push for measures to tackle corruption that have thus far failed to garner enough political support.
"Our coalition partners rejected the idea of central public procurements that we put forward in 2006. This will be a comparatively important topic when negotiations on forging a new government are held, and we'll bring this topic up," said Fico. On top of fighting clientelism, the measure could bring 15-20 percent savings in public procurements, he asserted.
Fico added that Smer already has specific ideas for changes in the judiciary. "We've drawn up two comparatively radical measures for the Slovak judiciary. They'll be decisions that will significantly help improve the Slovak judiciary, which has been discussed so extensively," he said, without expanding on details, which he said will be presented at the party's programme conference on April 6.
Speaking to the entrepreneurs present, Fico brought up the recently-approved Origin of Property Disclosure Act, while dismissing the law's shortcomings as presented by the media as "fallacies".
"The law is very stringent and it only hinges on the law-enforcement authorities how they handle it. If they apply it properly, it could have a strong preventive effect in the future," said Fico.
Fico also vowed to ensure that all specialised authorities, such as the Specialised Criminal Court, will continue to exist.
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