Never in the history of Slovakia has it happened that a foundation that fights against corruption has protected a person who manipulated state subsidies and had them reimbursed several times. He stated this at a press conference Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD). He was responding to the findings of the Stop Corruption Foundation in connection with the provision of subsidies.
Fico claims that they came to the case of subsidy fraud committed by the mother of opposition PS leader Michal Šimečka during audits at the ministries. According to him, the damage is close to 140,000 euros. “From these audits, information suddenly came out that there was probably unauthorized handling of the allocated subsidies. So we focused on some that appeared most often,” Fico said, adding that they did a cross-check between the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Culture.
“This cross-check showed us that the mother of the leader of Progressive Slovakia, Ms. Šimečková, had the same invoices repeatedly reimbursed. Subsidy fraud like thunder.” pointed out the prime minister. At the same time, he reminded that Marta Šimečková owes the European Commission 150,000 euros and is executing her because she has not yet paid this money.
Minister of Justice Boris Susko (Smer-SD) explained that within the terms of providing subsidies, the applicant honestly declares that he does not obtain resources from other public sources for the same project. “So that was the first error we found. And the second error was that we found that the same invoice that Projekt Fórum paid to its supplier, he had the same invoice reimbursed up to three times by three different institutions,” stated Susko.
Fico also pointed to Michal Šimečka’s statements about loans for Projekt Fórum. “Please, how can you use the foundation money that you receive as a subsidy from the state to repay some loan? (…) Today, for the first time, we have this information that Šimečka was sending money to his mother. The mother was sending money to him. Evidently from the sources of this foundation. And if it was money that was really the income of this civic association, as a subsidy from a state institution, then this is another huge problem. It is another gross violation of the law.” pointed out the prime minister.
In response, Šimečka stated that the prime minister did not deny the foundation’s findings at the press conference. “He just cursed, lied, talked about my family,” he commented. At the same time, he reproached the Prime Minister for not solving the problems of Slovak citizens, but only for political revenge. “We have rising energy prices, we have a huge cost of living crisis, but Fico is solving my mum,” he added.
According to the findings of the Stop corruption Foundation published on its website, the Criminal Financial Administration Office (KÚFS) was supposed to check the finances of several associations, despite the fact that it does not have the competence to do so. The Forum Project should also be among the associations. Šimečka thinks that KÚFS was spying on a political order and broke into the accounts of the civic association and his mother. He claims that he provided a loan of 5,200 euros to the civic association. The association later returned 5,000 euros to him.
The Financial Administration (FS) responded that the claims made in the foundation’s article were false. She called them inaccurate, distorted and purposefully misleading. “KÚFS proceeds in every case strictly in accordance with valid legislation and internal management acts. In the matter in question, he acted on the basis of several initiatives and to the full extent of his legal competences,” she said in a statement provided to TASR by FS spokesperson Daniel Kováč. FS announced that it would take legal action in the matter, including the filing of a criminal complaint. The Stop Corruption Foundation stands behind its claims, rejecting any expediency of the article. He claims that in the article they also published findings against Marta Šimečková.
