On Tuesday, the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAV) informed that it welcomed the opinion of the Supreme Audit Office.
The office chairman Karol Mitrik said on Monday that the plans to transform individual institutions of the Academy into public scientific and research bodies were not worked out in sufficient detail. According to Mitrik, Slovakia has experience with transforming 'budgetary and contribution organisations' into business entities, and if such a model had been followed, the deadlock concerning the Slovak Academy of Sciences could have been prevented. The Academy in this context claims, that this is an objection that should be directed to the legislative body and not to the Academy.
The Supreme Audit Office thinks that the problems in the transformation processes include, for example, a lack of clarity in the law on the Slovak Academy of Sciences, in relation to the law on public scientific and research bodies, as well as the time frame set for the transformation, which was only half as long as that used in the Czech Republic.
As part of the recommendations, Mitrik said that the transformation should proceed in line with the law on public scientific and research bodies, while transformation of the Academy's individual institutions could also be carried out on an individual basis and on a voluntary basis.
In its reaction to the Supreme Audit Office stance, the Education Ministry claims that it is clear from inspection that all the arguments the department has put forward regarding transformation of the Slovak Academy of Sciences into a public research institution, were correct.
