BRATISLAVA, February 17, (WEBNOVINY) – State Secretary of the Economy Ministry Martin Chren (SaS) confirmed that he is resigning from his post. “I decided to go back to parliament. It is solely my personal decision; nobody forced or pushed me into it. My decision was not caused by any pseudo-scandal or scandal. I want to prove that I am not glued to any seat,” Chren told journalists at a press conference on Thursday.
The scandal he was referring to was the Hayek Consulting case when co-owners of the company Martin Chren and Ivan Svejna (Most-Hid), later appointed as state secretaries in the Iveta Radicova’s Cabinet, allegedly made money on contracts announced by the Finance Ministry under the previous government. The second controversial event relates to an 8,100-euro contract awarded by the National Agency for Development of Small and Medium-Sized Businesses (NADSME) to Hayek Consulting at the time when Chren and Svejna already served in the government, which would constitute a conflict of interest. The company later canceled the contract, so its fulfillment did not start at all.
Supreme Audit Office said that the sum of almost EUR 2 million which the previous government paid to the company Hayek Consulting was used in line with the concluded contracts. The authority however did not check suspicious tenders, in which the company allegedly competed with friendly firms. After the case came to light Prime Minister Iveta Radicova said that if the Supreme Audit Office did not confirm transparency, effectiveness and profitability of the contracts, both secretaries would have to go. Unlike Chren, Svejna had resigned from his post at that time.
SITA