The government's 2020 programme declaration envisaged that the cabinet would support the creation of a functional model for the construction of affordable rental housing. "To develop it as a matter of priority, the Office of the then Deputy Prime Minister used the consultancy work of a private company at a cost of almost EUR 1.9 million. In the documents, the preparer did not draw attention to the limiting risk of possible unauthorised state aid, especially in the case of the proposed tax relief for investors in rental housing and the tax-free allowance for rent. However, the Treasury and the Antimonopoly Office had comments on non-compliance with European rules. Despite this, MPs approved the bill," said Ľubomír Andrassy, the chairman of the Supreme Audit Office (SAO) of the Slovak Republic, explaining the findings of the audit.

"Slovak institutions asked Brussels to assess the proposed model only in April 2023, almost a year after the law's adoption on state-supported rental housing," stressed Ľ. Andrassy. "Not to mention that this comprehensive law was not submitted to the Parliament from the government's position, but it was a non-standard procedure because the new legislation went through a parliamentary motion. How the current model of rental housing was created, its approval and the steps taken so far are an example of bad practice or legislative chaos," says the chairman of the office.

The SAO sends the results of this audit to the three highest constitutional officials - for the first time to President Petr Pellegrini, Prime Minister Robert Fico and the President in charge of the National Council of the Slovak Republic Peter Žiga. Since the last summary report, a total of 12 audits and one analysis have been completed and published. Almost 70 entities have been audited.

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