After months of wrestling and lawsuits between the Ministry of Finance (MoF) and head of the Supreme Court, Stefan Harbin, a judgement has been passed forbidding the MoF from conducting an audit at the Supreme Court, as it is not within its jurisdiction.
The judgement was passed by the Regional Court of Bratislava yesterday and has pleased Harabin, who prevented the MoF from making an audit several times, claiming that it should only be carried out by the Supreme Audit Office (NKU).
The court acknowledged Harabin’s claim in the end, stating that the Supreme Court is not officially part of the network of public authorities subject to an MoF audit. In response to the verdict, Harabin has called for an end to what he called a “political and police witch-hunt”.
Among other things, the dispute saw the MoF fine the Supreme Court EUR 33,000 last August for preventing the audit from taking place, but the new judgement means this fine is annulled.
The right of the MoF to conduct an audit was acknowledged, among others, by the Attorney General, the head of the Constitutional Court and also the competent Ombudsman. The MoF plans to appeal against the judgement.
