Monitor: Fico Wants ZMOS to Come Up with Reform of Small Villages Management

(TA3, 'V politike', October 20) Speaking on TA3's discussion programme 'V politike' (In Politics) on Sunday, Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) stated that he expects the Slovak Towns and Villages Association (ZMOS) to come up next year with a proposal of a reform that would tackle the "persistent" problem with the financing of small villages, although Fico doesn't wish to take away the right to their own representation from such local authorities. Fico reiterated that the Government had helped ZMOS by giving it €50 million, but he expects ZMOS to table a reform in return to facilitate the running of small villages. "I'm not saying that we'd like to take away from the villages the right to have their own mayor or some representation but we can't probably preserve 2,700 district authorities in this quality, where each has a mayor, district office and a village council," he claimed and added that the needs of several villages could be served by a single office with a shared accountant. Such a project could be financed with the European money. Fico underlined that the Health Ministry is fully under the aegis of Voice-SD coalition partner. He finds it important to make sure that the "mid-level health personnel" won't leave hospitals and that its salary hikes will take place as originally planned. "Everywhere else, compromises must be sought," he claimed. Next week, Fico plans to meet with Government Proxy for Investigation into COVID-19 Pandemic Management Peter Kotlar and plans to ask Kotlar to leave aside for the moment the "philosophizing about the vaccination". Instead, Fico wants him to focus on simple purchases of medical material and vaccines. "The Government Proxy submitted a report, in which I haven't yet seen everything I wanted to see," he said. In particular, Fico wants Kotlar to find out from the Supreme Audit Authority and other institutions whether there were any missteps in the running of mobile swab sample facilities and who and why was buying large amounts of vaccines in 2022, back when they were no longer needed. The Prime Minister doesn't recommend Smer-SD lawmakers to take part in any vote on the new House chair, unless a deal on the coalition candidate is "signed in blood". He doesn't think the problem is going to be thrashed out any time soon, though. "I really don't think so," he replied to the question as to whether the vote might be held by the end of this year. mf