Administration of departmental facilities (SRZ) of the Ministry of Culture (MK) of the Slovak Republic considers the statements of the opposition Slovensko Movement about the waste of public funds to be purposeful and misleadingbecause they are taken out of context. This was stated for TASR by the Departmental Facilities Administration of the Ministry of the Interior of the Slovak Republic. The Slovakian Movement announced on Tuesday that it is submitting a petition to the Supreme Audit Office (NAO) of the Slovak Republic for suspicions of wasteful handling of public finances.
“Approval of contracts and investments within the Departmental Facilities Administration of the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic takes place on the basis of clearly defined criteria, in particular according to the necessity of the intervention, the technical condition of the objects, the priorities of the individual organizations of the department and the principle of economy.” the report stated in the statement, stating that the projects are based on the real needs of organizations and their goal is the systematic restoration and management of property, which in many cases has been neglected for a long time.
“Transparency and efficiency are ensured by strict compliance with applicable legislation,” stressed from SRZ MK. All public procurements are conducted according to the administration in accordance with the law, are published in the relevant systems and open to competition.
SRZ points out that it was established precisely to eliminate inefficient and fragmented management from the past and functions as “a key tool for centralizing building management, maintenance and procurement”. According to SRZ, this model enables uniform management, better coordination and gradual reduction of costs in the entire department. “We consider the statements of the Slovakian Movement presented at the press conference to be purposeful and misleading, as they work with information taken out of context and do not take into account the actual scope or purpose of the investments made,” stated SRZ MK.
The representatives of the Slovak Movement claim that the management of departmental facilities of the Department of Culture has nothing to do with the investigation. They pointed out that it was created in February 2025 and won a contract worth almost 12 million euros per year. “For comparison, not even the three-ensemble national theater in Košice, with its almost 80-year history, has such finances annually,” they stated. Natália Milanová from the movement also pointed out the extensive use of external services.
“Public procurement, accounting, wages and legal services are provided by external companies. Legal services alone cost 490,000 euros, accounting almost 180,000 euros and public procurement 60,000 euros,” she said on Tuesday. According to Milanova, the organization is growing, while other institutions are saving. Hnutie Slovensko therefore submits an initiative to the relevant control authorities. At the same time, the representatives of the movement called for the abolition of this organization.
The Ministry of Culture considers the statements of representatives of the Slovakian Movement to be part of their political theater. “It is paradoxical if those who talk about wastefulness are the ones under whose tenure the culture department stagnated and the investment debt on state monuments grew to record proportions,” Petra Demková, director of the communication department of the MK, responded for TASR. According to the MK, the administration of departmental facilities was created as a system tool to correct this long-standing chaos and inefficiency.
“The organization has already begun the process of concluding memoranda of cooperation with individual contributing organizations of the Department of Culture with the clear goal of centralizing selected activities, especially in the area of maintenance, building management and procurement of services. Instead of fragmented spending of public resources, this process brings unified and strictly controlled management, which in the medium term will bring significant economies of scale and uniform quality standards for the entire department,” added Demková.
According to MK, all SRZ investments and procedures are implemented in strict accordance with the Public Procurement Act. “If Hnutie Slovensko has any real suspicions, it has every right to turn to the relevant control authorities, to which we are ready to provide maximum cooperation, as we fully stand behind the results of our work and the efforts to modernize the department,” concluded Demková.
