New Supreme Audit Office head stirs dispute among opposition

On Wednesday in a secret ballot in Parliament Karol Mitrík was elected as Supreme Audit Office (NKU) head. Mitrík who is 68 years old is a former mayor of Spišská Nová Ves (in the Kosice region), who later served as Slovak Intelligence Service (SIS) director under Prime Minister Iveta Radičová (2010-12). He will replace Jan Jasovský who has been in office three years beyond his term. Karol Mitrík was nominated to the post by the opposition SDKU-DS chair Pavol Frešo however voted for mostly by the SMER MPs. He beat Maroš Žilinka, a candidate with the largest support of the Opposition parties and Henrieta Crkoňová, a former service office director at the Education Ministry under Smer ministers. "This is one Opposition candidate who's clean in God's eye." said Prime Minister Robert Fico said in response to the Mitrík's election in Parliament on Wednesday. The post of Supreme Audit Office chair should according to agreements between the Government and the Opposition belong to the Opposition and the opposition believes by Mitrík's election into the office the agreement has been broken. By Mitrík's election the governing Smer-SD party has selected its own candidate who'll make sure that the office is castrated for the next seven years, stated Independent MP and extra-parliamentary Sieť party vice-chairman Miroslav Beblavý. "Smer has misused this vote to elect its own candidate," said Beblavý, adding that Smer has been attempting to impose Mitrík on the Opposition since 2012. Beblavý and other opposition MPs are blaming SDKU-DS party chairman Pavol Frešo for nominating for the post not an opposition candidate but in fact a candidate of the SMER party. Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) MP Lubomir Gaľko stated that from now on "working with MP Frešo will be a standard as working with any Smer MP." Pavol Frešo defended his nomination of Karol Mitrík saying that "he is a Supreme Audit Office chair who we can be proud of" and denied that he was influenced by PM Robert Fico's known support for Mitrík.