Events organised during the Slovak Presidency of the EU Council were allegedly financed inefficiently and the law was breached during their preparation, it was claimed in a blog post published by a former ministry employee Zuzana Hlávková last weekend. Hlávková, who left the ministry in February, spoke to the public at a press conference organized by Transparency International on Monday. According to her, Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajčák was fully aware of the alleged failures. Hlávková claims that the excessive spending started when the former director of the Markíza TV channel, Zuzana Tapáková, joined the ministry as a media advisor. "We were forced to change projects based on her requirements. Events, which were formerly planed as more modest and decent started to become spectacular events of a commercial character," Hlávková wites. She points, for example, to the event for the presentation of the presidency logo. It was organized shortly before the general election and its requirements were allegedly created to benefit the winning Evka agency, which had organized events for the governing SMER-SD party in the past. Hlávková also claimed that opening concert co-organized by Viva Musica! agency was overpriced.
The agency's director Matej Drlička responded to her blog saying that "The text is full of inaccurate information and half-truths." The ministry's media advisor Zuzana Ťapáková gave a statement to the Aktuality.sk website saying that she considers the accusations to be fabricated and deceptive and she is ready to take legal action against Hlávková. "We reject allegations of the former employee as well as those of Transparency International regarding failures in procurement of services related to the Slovak Presidency of the EU Council," wrote TASR citing the Ministry's spokesperson Peter Stano.
