In the next few days the state-owned heating company in Kosice, TEKO, will be approaching all former top managers of the company to request out-of-court agreements with them to return the excessive severance payments made to them.
TEKO is taking the action at the recommendation of the national property fund FNM, and if no agreement is reached then TEKO will take the former managers to court.
Head of the company, Miroslav Nosal, informed at a press conference yesterday that the FNM had given the instruction to start using legal means to reclaim the funds that were paid out to the former management. He refused to say whether they would file lawsuits if no agreement is reached.
An in-depth audit of contracts with managers was ordered in TEKO by the FNM after the former general director was awarded EUR 90,000 in severance pay. All the contracts that were concluded after 2006 were subject to the audit, but Nosal is refusing to quote the full amount that was paid out.
The audit showed that in some cases the employment termination agreements that TEKO entered into with managers were concluded illegitimately, as they had no substantiation in the law or in their employment contracts. Some of the employment contracts were even concluded without the consent of the competent body of the company.