Following the recent exposure of highly expensive media training paid for by the former heads of the Ministry of Finance, now it has appeared that the Ministry of Defence basically did the same, just to a lesser degree.
Under the former government the ministry signed contracts for consulting services between 2007-2010 worth over SKK 1 million (EUR 33,000), which would not be so bad if there was some kind of proof that these ‘lectures and consultations’ ever took place.
The supplier of the media training courses was the same as for the Ministry of Finance, a Lubica Mizickova.Current Ministry of Defence spokesman, Richard Sumeghy, informed: “There are no documents at the ministry to show who received the training. The ministry has no information about training being provided to section directors and the state secretary. The only thing that is clear is that former minister Jaroslav Baska (Smer-SD) attended a media training course”.
In her defence Mizickova explained to TASR newswire: “It wasn’t just media training, it was also education at the minister’s office, with the spokesman and other section heads … I can send you all the documentation if you want”.
Spokesman Sumeghy says the contract was for 300 hours a year for three years at an hourly rate of SKK 1,080 (EUR 36), but he voiced his suspicion as to why the ministry had paid the same amount for the same hours every year. He also added that the media training undertaken by current defence minister, Lubomir Galko, has all been provided in-house by ministry employees.