The F.A. Hayek Foundation has retaliated over the recent accusations that it was involved in questionable contract awards. It claims it has become the target of a deliberated smear campaign, which has done a lot of damage to the company’s good name.
Foundation president Jan Oravec made the claims following recent articles in the media over a potential conflict of interest involving state secretaries with the Ministry of Environment, Martin Chren (SaS), and the Ministry of Transport, Ivan Svejna (Most-Hid).
The alleged conflict of interests concerns the awarding of state contracts to Hayek Consulting, which falls under the F.A. Hayek Foundation. Both the sate secretaries worked for and had stakes in Hayek Consulting.
Now the directors of the foundation have decided to take legal steps, although no specific culprit can yet be determined.
The case has caused problems within the coalition as well, with the two state secretaries possibly about to be recalled. Prime Minister Iveta Radicova has referred to the issue several times as a conflict of interests, even though the contracts were signed under the former government, except for one, which was signed just after the elections.
This last contract was cancelled by Chren and Svejna, though, and they both got rid of their stakes even before the accusations started to fly. The government will finalise the matter tomorrow at the Coalition board meeting.