Hlávková serves as an example for young people, says President

The accusations made by former Foreign and European Affairs Ministry staff member Zuzana Hlávková concerning alleged squandering during the Slovak Presidency of the EU Council should be investigated as soon as possible, said President Andrej Kiska in a debate with university students in Košice on Monday. If people don't learn what actually happened, their trust in the state will fall dramatically, warned Kiska at Pavol Jozef Šafárik University. "The case of this young lady shows exactly how young people should be; able to speak out decently and with self-confidence when they witness the state failing," Kiska told TASR later. While the benefit of the doubt certainly applies here, the case needs to be investigated soon, stated Kiska. "We have too many unresolved cases. If such accusations appear, we should be able to tell pretty quickly - within a week or two - whether there has been any failure and who was responsible in order to preserve neutrality until such a decision is made, in order to prevent [innocent] people from being condemned and in order to have things made clear as soon as possible," said Kiska. As for Hlávková's statements last week, the Foreign Affairs Ministry has rejected the accusations, stating that all tenders have been carried out lawfully and that even savings have been posted so far when compared to the approved budget.