- SaS draws attention to errors in the allocation and payment of targeted energy assistance.
- Minister Sakova claims that the error rate reached 1 to 1.5 percent of cases.
- The party submitted a complaint to the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Slovak Republic for suspected criminal offences.
Errors in the allocation and payment of targeted energy assistance are repeated, and in case of unauthorized payment there is a risk that households will have to return it. At Tuesday’s press conference, the opposition party SaS drew attention to this. At the same time, up to 43 million euros could be paid out incorrectly. The party therefore submits an initiative to the General Prosecutor’s Office (GP) of the Slovak Republic.
“We are filing a complaint with the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Slovak Republic. We suspect the commission of a criminal offense of breach of duty in the management of foreign property and also suspicion of damaging the financial interests of the European Union, because the minister directly talks about 17 million euros, which should have been used from European sources for administration,” stated SaS member Karol Galek.
According to SaS, Energošeks were also issued, for example, to the so-called dead souls people who have already died, but they still have real estate registered in the cadastre and are therefore the oldest person in the household. Allegedly, such an energy voucher came for a demolished house that had not been inhabited for 20 years.
When calculating the incorrectly spent funds, SaS was based on the information that the error rate in energy aid is at the level of 10%. However, Economy Minister Denisa Saková (Voice-SD) gave a different number in the Joj Politika 24 TV talk show. “Inconsistent data affected the payment or granting of energy assistance to 1% to 1.5% of households,” she claimed. At the same time, most of the energy assistance is not paid through energy checks – they only concern heat – but for electricity and gas as discounts on the invoice from the supplier.
SaS MPs also criticized the method of paying energy aid through energy checks. According to them, residents often have to wait tens of minutes at post office branches, and sometimes needlessly, as the post office runs out of cash. “Minister Sakova said that she wants a system where people will not have to solve anything and everything will happen automatically, but at the same time she will send 700,000 people to the post office four times this year,” he added Galek.
