Bratislava, 15 March 2024 – In recent years, Slovakia has faced the biggest crises in its modern history. The COVID-19 pandemic, the energy crisis, the war in a neighbouring country and the related migration wave have revealed significant shortcomings in the current crisis management system. The Supreme Audit Office (SAO) of the Slovak Republic has sent a report with the findings of the current audit of the crisis management system in the years 2020 to 2022 to the three highest constitutional officials – President Zuzana Čaputová, Speaker of the Parliament Peter Pellegrini and Prime Minister Robert Fico. Civil protection and crisis management have not been a priority for any of the previous governments, which has caused its significant stagnation and decline. “Although Slovakia has a significant part of its territory covered by electronic sirens (about 80%), it does not have a functional shelter system and does not have a sufficient stock of basis means to protect its population. The functional usability of materials from civil protection warehouses is practically zero in the event of an emergency situation,” points out Ľubomír Andrassy, the President of the Supreme Audit Office. Therefore, the national authority for external audit calls out the responsible institutions to adopt a new model of state crisis management during crisis or emergency situations. The auditors have also sent the findings of more than 20 other audits completed or presented in the previous five months to the highest constitutional authorities. The national auditors examined almost 80 state and public administration entities.