Supreme Audit Office of the Slovak Republic

Bratislava, 21 December 2020 - State institutions were not sufficiently prepared for crisis management in times of emergency. This was confirmed not only by the setting up the activities of the State Material Reserves Administration of the Slovak Republic (SMRASR), but also by the formal functioning of the pandemic and national anti-epidemic commission during the situation caused by the COVID-19 disease. Slovakia did not have any emergency stocks of medical devices available at the beginning of the year, nor at the end of September 2020 at the onset of the pandemic second wave the situation was significantly better. The SMASR had the necessary medical material available only for ten days. For example, bags for biological waste, gloves and disinfection were missing. The Supreme Audit Office of the Slovak Republic, based of this year's extraordinary activities aimed to analyse the development of medical device prices, the SMASR management and describing risks related to protect the population from infectious diseases, draws the attention of Parliament and Government to shortcomings in state crisis management.

The national Authority for external control recommends the Ministry of the Interior to perform a comprehensive analysis of the key institutions in times of emergency management system. "We can handle any serious situation only if there are clear rules for the active participation by each interested State and public institution in the State crisis management system," recalls Ľubomír Andrassy. The Vice-Chairman of the SAO adds that the existence of clearly and legally determined responsibility for the management, decision-making and prevention from significant damage to property, public health as a result of a pandemic or natural disaster is also an equally important issue.

 The full text of the press release about this issue in Slovak language is available here. Use the Google icon in the top bar for automatic translation.