Bratislava, July 10, 2020 - The managers of the State enterprise Lesy Slovenskej republiky selected the fire protection camera system for forest protection for almost 28 million euros in a non-transparent way and its operation is more expensive than if forests were protected by, for example, piloted flights. National auditors found insufficient evaluation of European projects by the Agricultural Paying Agency, as well as incorrect determination of the contract-estimated value by the price averages from market research, or discriminatory conditions in tendering.

A serious shortcoming is also the lack of valuation of delivered goods for services and the absence of a connection between fire protection of forests in ??760 thousand hectares with the system managed by the Fire and Rescue Service. Due to the seriousness of the findings, the national authority for external control relinquishes the audit results to law enforcement authorities.

The full text of the press release about this audit in Slovak language is available here. Use the Google icon in the top bar for automatic translation into the desired language.