In brief

• Slovakia faces the loss of European money earmarked for digitalisation and informatisation.
• Out of more than 510 million euro, the Ministry of Investments has spent roughly 19 million.
• The ministry proposes speeding up tenders, simplifying contracts and prioritising checks of risky projects.

Slow use of funds

Slovakia is not managing to use the European Union money earmarked for digitalisation and informatisation in time, so it risks losing part of the funds (Ministerstvo investícií čerpá eurofondy pomaly, jeho postup kritizujú aj odborníci. Rezort vidí vinníka inde – STVR) (Slovensku hrozí prepad eurofondov na digitalizáciu. Štát priznáva pomalé tendre a varuje pred stratou miliónov – Aktuality.sk). Of the more than 510 million euro that were meant to go to projects in this area, the investment ministry led by Samuel Migaľ has spent about 19 million euro. According to the ministry, the beneficiaries, i.e. the public institutions running these projects, are responsible for the effective implementation of the projects.

Proposals to speed things up

To prevent the funds from being lost, the ministry proposes several steps. Offices should speed up public procurement, remove from contracts conditions that delay their implementation, and give priority to submitting payment requests and tenders for control. The ministry also calls on the Public Procurement Office to first check the tenders in projects that the ministry has deemed risky.

Criticism and the office's response

The ministry's conduct is criticised by the opposition and some experts. Opposition MP Ján Hargaš of PS speaks of an alarming situation. The Public Procurement Office announced that, as an intermediate body, it performs tasks within the Slovakia Programme in the scope and on the conditions set out in its agreement with the ministry, and pledged full cooperation.

What it means

The situation is developing under time pressure, as the deadlines for using the funds are getting shorter. For companies supplying digital solutions to public administration, this means that new tenders and accelerated procurement procedures may appear in the coming months.