Ministries of Interior and Labour top receivers of 2018 state money

The state budget in 2018 should post a deficit of €1.973 billion, with the overall income projected at €13.983 billion and expenditures at €15.956 billion. The highest volume of expenditures is planned for the Interior Ministry - up by 2.91 percent year-on-year, which is followed by the Labour Ministry with the increase of almost 4 %. According to the budget draft, the Transport and Construction Ministry should receive €1.18 billion, which represents a drastic cut of 45.3 percent on the annual basis. According to its spokesperson Karolina Ducka, this figure is related to a drop in funds related to an update of EU fund drawing and the co-funding of individual projects from the state budget. Economy Minister Peter Ziga "accepts" the 2018 budget draft for his ministry. "I'm not saying that I'm happy, but considering the limited options of the Finance Ministry, I've now come to terms with it," said Ziga, adding that the budgeting for the Economy Ministry is more or less in the same volume as seen in the previous year. Health Minister Tomas Drucker finds the state budget draft for health sufficient, stipulating an annual increase of funds by more than 2.7 percent in 2018. According to Drucker, perhaps even additional funding by the state as in 2017 will not be necessary with such a budget. Independent MPs Miroslav Beblavý and Jozef Mihál criticised the fact that while the health-care budget should be increased by 7.7 percent y-o-y, Health Minister Tomas Drucker "keeps postponing substantial measures, health facilities are still being headed by the same compromised managers and new money is hardly reaching patients via more available and higher quality health care".