Interior minister Daniel Lipsic called a press conference today to announce prosecution of at least five people following investigations into the infamous ‘notice-board’ tender.
One of the accused is former construction minister for the SNS party, Igor Stefanov, and so a special request will be made to strip him of his immunity, then face charges of machination with a public tender.
The investigators found that the tender had been conducted in violation to the Public Procurement Act and on the Act to Access to Information, stating that the tender worth over SKK 3.6 billion had been manipulated and pre-arranged.
Lipsic said they had sufficient evidence, including computer records showing, for example, how the co-operation agreement between the Ministry of Construction and the winning tenderer had been drawn up the day before envelopes were opened.
The amount alone, SKK 3,601,456,369, makes it one of the most serious cases involving top representatives of the former government, said Lipsic.
Minister Lipsic expressed that nobody was above the law and that the time had come for even politicians who have stolen billions to be brought to justice. It all has to stop if we want to have a feeling of justice in the country, noted Lipsic.
When asked whether he really believed that those as the top of the chain would be punished, Lipsic pointed out that something still had to be done with the Supreme Court. He also said twice at the briefing that the presumption of innocence still applied.
The SNS party has already hit back, playing down Lipsic’s latest appearance as exhibitionism. Party spokeswoman Jana Benkova said that no proof had been presented, and that Lipsic was just happy to be on the television again.