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Bratislava – The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) has launched criminal proceedings in the matter of procuring IT solutions for the public administration portal slovensko.sk. It concerns suspicions of the crime of manipulation in public procurement and damaging the financial interests of the European Union at the attempt stage. The foundation Zastavme korupciu announced this on the social network on Thursday, TASR reports.
The foundation stated that at the end of the year, together with Slovensko.Digital, it drew attention to dubious purchases worth approximately 130 million euros, which were initiated by Minister Samuel Migaľ (independent). “It concerned the redesign of the slovensko.sk portal. For the purchase of one specific IT solution, we filed a criminal complaint,” stated the foundation Zastavme korupciu.
The foundation specified that it was the purchase of the so-called IAM license for the slovensko.sk portal for 17.8 million euros. According to it, the conditions were set in such a way as to favor the company Barclet, which is connected to the long-term supplier GlobalTel.
The foundation filed the criminal complaint at the end of October last year. The Ministry of Investment, Regional Development and Informatization (MIRRI) of the Slovak Republic responded at the time that it welcomed the criminal complaint, “because it is absurd and thanks to its failure the public will have another argument that the steps being taken are absolutely in accordance with the law and are beneficial for Slovakia”.
According to the investment department, the foundation ignored facts and twisted information, while MIRRI communicated with it and answered all its questions. Licenses from the company Barclet have been operating on the slovensko.sk portal since 2015, but in terms of capacity and functionality they do not meet the required parameters according to MIRRI. The subject of the procurement was supposed to be their improvement. (22 January)