House: Gaspar: Two Committees Could Discuss Pandemic Management Together

Bratislava, March 10 (TASR) - House Vice-chair Tibor Gaspar (Smer-SD) announced on Monday that members of the House Health and Defence Committees could discuss resource management during the COVID-19 pandemic in a closed session, focusing on the handling of European funds related to the purchase of vaccines centrally procured by the European Commission for EU-member states. "We agreed that we'll convene the committee once again on this topic. We would like to be provided with this information at the designated level so that we, as MPs, can at least have basic information on how effectively European funds were managed," Gaspar said at a press conference, adding that he needs to check if the joint meeting is allowed by the rules of procedure. Gaspar explained that the Monday health committee meeting on resource management during the pandemic was convened due to suspicions of non-transparent and inefficient use of public funds. He stated that during the meeting, it was revealed that many pieces of information were deleted from the National Health Information Centre (NCZI) systems. The head of the Supreme Audit Office (NKU), Lubomir Andrassy, stated at the meeting that data related to the operation of mobile testing sites (MOM) during the COVID-19 pandemic were deleted. Opposition MP Oskar Dvorak (Progressive Slovakia/PS) considers Monday's health committee meeting and its informal discussion a waste of time, stating that the coalition should focus on addressing the shortage of staff and collapsing hospitals. According to former health minister and opposition MP Marek Krajci ('Slovakia'), the Supreme Audit Authority (NKU) report on mobile testing sites has "significant shortcomings." Krajci also stands by his mass testing. The committee was not quorate due to a lack of MPs, but they agreed on holding an informal discussion. lin