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Agroinstitute was abolished in violation of the law; the ministry temporarily lost control of millions of assets

Published: 02.08.2024
Bratislava, 2 August 2024 - The Agroinstitute Nitra was not dissolved in 2022 in accordance with the State Enterprise Act. The decisions of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development were not based on the legislation, were confusing, unenforceable and caused great legal uncertainty. This follows from an audit by the Supreme Audit Office (SAO) of the Slovak Republic. "The incorrect procedure of the management of the Ministry of Agriculture even resulted in the temporary loss of control over the property of the defunct Agroinstitute. The ministry had de facto no control over the state property, which was worth more than EUR 11 million according to an expert's report, for more than a year," says Henrieta Crkoňová, deputy chairwoman of the National Audit Office. "In terms of the seriousness of the findings, we are referring the protocol from the audit to the Nitra Regional Prosecutor's Office for suspicion of breach of duty in the management of property," she added.

As an EU member state, Slovakia is obliged to have the so-called AKIS - an agricultural knowledge and information system accessible to the public with comprehensive agrarian data. The Ministry of Agriculture has decided to fulfil this obligation by reorganising its existing institutions and transferring the agenda to the competence of one subordinate organisation. In particular, there was a lack of a single digital platform with comprehensive access to agro-sector data. This task was given to the Institute of Knowledge-based Agriculture and Innovation (IZPI), which started operating at the beginning of 2023 by renaming the former Rural Development Agency, and the scientific and research activities of the Agroinstitute were also transferred to its remit, together with its staff, library, information technology, training centre in Lučenec, administrative building and hotel in Nitra. A smaller part of the property was transferred to the state enterprise Agrokomplex National Exhibition Centre, with which the Agroinstitute was officially merged by the Ministry of Agriculture's decision.

"According to the Law on State Enterprise - the assets and liabilities of the merging enterprise are transferred from the merging enterprise to another existing enterprise, which thus becomes its legal successor. The Institute of Knowledge Agriculture and Innovation was not a state-owned enterprise, so the assets could not be transferred to it," Mrs Crkoňová stressed. "What is striking about the whole matter is the fact that representatives of the ministry acted despite being warned that the proposed transformation of the state-owned enterprise was not following the law," the deputy chairwoman of the office added.

"This audit also shows that it is necessary to consider and carefully prepare for possible reorganisations or the creation of new state institutions and bodies. In addition to increased costs, their creation may also be associated with legislative problems," concluded the deputy chairwoman of the national auditors.

The full text of the press release about this issue in Slovak language

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