The parliamentary conflicts of interest committee at its session on Tuesday levied a fine on Defence Minister Robert Kalinak (Smer-SD) equalling three times his monthly salary for his failure to declare ownership of his wife's villa in Croatia in his property declaration.
At the same time, the committee did not impose a fine on opposition MP Veronika Remišová ('Slovakia', Za ludi, KU) who faced proceedings before the committee for disclosing non-public information about Kalinak in connection with his non-disclosure.
The committee agreed that the Minister violated a constitutional law by failing to include ownership of his wife's villa in Croatia in property declarations.
Kalinak argued that he wanted to protect his family's privacy, that his various incomes fully cover the value of the real estate and that his family were able to afford the villa with regards to his long-term business activities. He said in June that he would pay the potential fine but would ask the Constitutional Court for an opinion in this case. The Minister was not in attendance when the committee announced its decision.
Several motions were filed by MPs in connection with his failure to meet this obligation, as well as by the Let's Stop Corruption foundation. House committee member SaS MP Ondrej Dostal pointed out that Kalinak failed to declare ownership of the villa not only in his 2022 declaration, for which he received the fine, but also in the one for 2023. Remišová said that he should have received a separate fine for each breach, which did not happen.
"Practically all MPs agreed with this fine, both from the opposition and coalition," said Kalinak’s lawyer, David Lindtner, adding that he doesn't know whether the Minister will file an appeal with the Constitutional Court.
Asked whether Kalinak broke the law, Lindtner said that his "actions weren't substantial enough to qualify as a breach of the law."
As regards the motion against Remišová in which she faced a fine equalling twelve salaries, she reiterated that she never disclosed information about Kalinak's family's assets and that Kalinak admitted to ownership himself.
"The facts were clear from the start: he himself admitted to deliberately breaking the law, concealing a luxury property in his property declaration, and he arrogantly said that he'd break the constitutional law again," said Remišová.
Committee vice-chair Pavol Goga (Smer-SD) thinks that Remišová breached the law, but the proposal for a twelve-salary fine didn't pass in the committee due to insufficient votes from coalition MPs. Lindtner also thinks that Remišová broke the constitutional law "by confirming whether some information is or is not included in the non-public section of a property declaration."
Source: TASR
