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Fico Asks Chovan to Table Proposal to Oust Land Fund Management
Tuesday 01 December 2009 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, December 1 (TASR) - Prime Minister Robert Fico on Tuesday asked Agriculture Minister Vladimir Chovan to submit a proposal on dismissing head of the Slovak Land Fund (SPF) Miroslav Mihalik (Smer-SD party nominee) and his deputy Adrian Sandorcin (LS-HZDS nominee) at the upcoming session of Government on Wednesday, TASR learnt on Tuesday.
In addition, the Government will table a proposal to Parliament to recall the Cabinet's six nominees on the SPF board.
The move comes in response to the scandal involving the transfer of land in Velka Lomnica and Stara Lesna (both Presov region). "I'm convinced that all the people at SPF have failed," said Fico.
The premier stressed, however, that SPF's actions vis-a-vis the allocation of substitute plots of land were in accordance with the law. "On the other hand, not all that's legal is necessarily right," he said.
According to Fico, in Slovakia there's a long-term custom of allocating plots of land to restituents in more lucrative areas than where the original plots were. He noted that the Government aimed at halting this practice by introducing a range of measures following a scandal in SPF in 2007.
He added that he had expected SPF's board not only to pay close attention to the law, but also to bring suspicious land transfers to the attention of relevant authorities. Fico also branded the actions of all 11 members of the SPF board as a 'gross failure'. At the same time, the premier rejected any criticism by Opposition parties.
The Opposition is acting like it's infallible, while we all know only too well that Opposition representatives in (SPF's) Board had all documents at their disposal, and recommended to the general director that he should agree with the decision (on the land) that prompted further doubts, said Fico.
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