Agriculture Minister and People's Party -- Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (LS-HZDS) Secretary Zdenka Kramplova, who should involuntarily quit her ministerial post these days, is urging LS-HZDS Chairman Vladimir Meciar to immediately summon a meeting of party leaders that she demands should take a stance on the situation around her planned ousting.
Mr. Meciar already proposed that Prime Minister Robert Fico dismiss the minister. Though Mr. Fico has no reservations regarding the minister's work he thinks that Ms. Kramplova cannot remain minister as she has lost the trust of Mr. Meciar and the party that nominated her. Ms. Kramplova told SITA that the LS-HZDS chairman is not communicating with her at present. He reportedly demands the departure of his long-term ally because she signed a multi-million crown contract in the name of the ministry behind his back.
The press informed Friday that the LS-HZDS leader's right-hand woman will be the fifth minister to quit Robert Fico's Cabinet because she did not inform Vladimir Meciar of a SKK 900 million public procurement organized by her ministry. The firm Columbex International is the winner of the tender for supply of information technologies. The minister insists that if she had not signed the contract Slovak farmers would have lost EU funds. Businessmen Michal Lazar and Alexej Beljajev are involved in Columbex International and these men are also partners in the firm Optifin Invest, which lent over SKK 10 million (EUR 332,000) to the LS- HZDS. Moreover, Mr. Lazar and Mr. Beljajev have close contacts with privatizer Vladimir Poor, who is on bad terms with Mr. Meciar, wrote Novy Cas.
Ms. Kramplova said today's set of stories published by the tabloid Plus Jeden Den was advertising paid for by Miroslav Jurena, whom she replaced nine months ago as the minister. She said that all this information reiterates the nonsense with which Mr. Jurena has been feeding Mr. Meciar for two months, including a fiction about the rise of a group of which Ms. Kramplova is allegedly a member.
Ms. Kramplova also rejected cronyism allegations regarding public tenders at the ministry. She underscored that these orders are not paid from party funds but from public sources and therefore accusations that she did not inform the party are scandalous and damaging to the LS-HZDS and the whole ruling coalition.
Plus Jeden Den also informed that LS-HZDS Deputy Chairman Milan Urbani played an important role in tenders at the Agriculture Ministry. However, he distanced himself from all tenders that took and are taking place at ministries. "The LS-HZDS never interfered in tenders at ministries," he stated and added that he would prepare a lawsuit against the daily.
The minister also faces accusations regarding suspicious donations to the LS-HZDS. However, Ms. Kramplova stated that she does not feel guilty over the case of the scandalous financing of her party. Last year, the party received donations worth several millions of crowns from disabled pensioner Rudolf Travnicek and businessman Jozef Ocel, who is allegedly in debt and accepted a donation from the party with state participation, which is at odds with the law. According to Ms. Kramplova, she, as LS-HZDS secretary, is not responsible for the party's management. Mrs. Kramplova signed the donation contracts on the day she was in Brussels.