On Thursday, British carmaker Jaguar Land Rover owned by India's Tata Motors officially opened its plant in the city of Nitra, western Slovakia. Thus, there are four car making plants in the country - Germany's Volkswagen in Bratislava, France's PSA Peugeot Citroen in Trnava, western Slovakia, and South Korea's Kia Motors in Žilina, central Slovakia. As the hnonline.sk website wrote, the company invested €1.4 billion in Slovakia and received state aid approved by the European Commission at the level of €125 million. Moreover, indirect aid in the form of building infrastructure should reach €500 million.
According to the New York Times, Jaguar Land Rover will shift all the production of its Discovery model from Birmingham, England, to Slovakia amid falling diesel sales, vehicle taxes and uncertainty about Britain's departure from the European Union.
The Zastavme korupciu foundation has filed a complaint with the Public Procurement Office regarding three procurement bids for over €430 million, where the state chose building companies for the construction of the strategic park for the plant in Nitra. All three bids were won by the Strabag company and its daughter company, which might be a sign of the existence of a cartel. After analysis, the Zastavme korupciu foundation decided to file a procurement bid for all three bids due to a suspicion of breaching the law on public procurement, a lack of competition and an unwarranted change of commitment. "The Public Procurement Office is actively looking into the case and currently taking measures to lead to the beginning of a control," said the spokesperson of the office, Janka Zvončeková, for the SITA press agency.
