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Fico: Actions by SPF Management Must be Scrutinised
Saturday 05 December 2009 Zoom in | Print page
(Slovak Radio, December 5, 'Sobotne dialogy')
After the entire management of the Slovak Land Fund (SPF) has been dismissed, actions made by these 13 people in the issue of suspicious transfers of land in the High Tatras must be scrutinised, Prime Minister Robert Fico said on public-service Slovak Radio's (SRo) political discussion programme Sobotne Dialogy (Saturday dialogues) on Saturday.
"We need to ask a question whether these 13 people acted in concert, then obviously responsibility must be drawn to a much larger extent," said the premier.
The dismissal of the SPF management came in the wake of a scandal concerning the transfer of land in Velka Lomnica and Stara Lesna (both Presov region) to land restituents. SME daily informed on Tuesday that the SPF director and his deputy signed a contract in September 2009, due to which restituents from eastern Slovakia have become owners of 1.6 million square meters of land in Velka Lomnica and Stara Lesna. According to the daily, the restituents then sold most of the lucrative land at a bargain price to a company called GVM, which is allegedly close to LS-HZDS chairman Vladimir Meciar.
The respective contracts, which were signed by SPF general director Miroslav Mihalik and his deputy Adrian Sandorcin, and approved by 11 members of SPF's Board, are currently being looked into by the Prosecutor-General's Office.
According to Fico, the point is now to find out whether those in charge of SPF were aware of the fact that, although they were selling the land in line with the law, the land would then be sold on to a company called GVM, which was engaged in another scandal plaguing SPF in 2007.
"If the Prosecutor-General's Office concludes that apparently crimes were perpetrated, I will support the Office. I couldn't care less about who'll go under due to the case. I won't be liable for rogues, I mean as long as they were rogues and knew that something had been done in a rogue manner," said the premier.
He went on to admit that some former members of SPF's board, who currently hold other posts in public administration, may also eventually face music over the issue. This concerns, for instance, current Environment Ministry State Secretary Miloslav Sebek and chairman of the State Material Reserves Administration Marian Cakajda.
In order to ensure that similar scandals won't repeat in the future, the act on land restitution must be amended, said Fico. He added that he's not opposed to the idea that money should be paid out as a compensation making up for land of which its owners were stripped in the past.
A new head of SPF must be appointed as soon as possible, added Fico. "I will again seek a person outside structures of governing-coalition political parties, somebody who will make me feel sure that he or she won't fail. I wouldn't like to specify the name for now, though I already have somebody in mind," he added.
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