The Public Procurement Office (UVO) has halted its inspection regarding the purchase of F-16 fighter jets; it is sending its results to the Supreme Audit Office (NKU) and will wait for the NKU's conclusions, Public Procurement Office chairman Miroslav Hlivak announced on Thursday. According to him, they have not found any violation of the law that did or could have had an impact on the result of the public procurement. Nevertheless, Hlivak added that the Defence Ministry's previous management had acted in an extremely non-transparent manner in relation to UVO, providing it with confusing information. Defence Minister Jaroslav Nad (OLaNO) finds the technicalities of F-16 fighter jets procurement, carried out under the previous ministry leadership, incomprehensible and dubious and is glad that the Supreme Audit Office (NKU) will look into the matter. The minister does not believe that any decisions by supervisory bodies could lead to the contract of sale being abrogated and pointed out that Slovakia has already paid almost one billion euros for the purchase of the jets. In 2018, UVO came into conflict with the Defense Ministry, which claimed then that it was not proceeding in line with the Public Procurement Act regarding the fighter jet contract. It argued that the confidentiality regime applies to the contract and that the UVO was not entitled to control it. The new leadership of the defense department began cooperating with the Authority and withdrew the lawsuit against the UVO filed by its predecessor. At the same time, it asked the UVO to examine the ministry's procedures.
Source: TASR, SITA
