Banking on Integrity: Should Slovakia’s Central Bank Governor Stay in Office?

At the end of May, the Special Criminal Court in Slovakia found Peter Kažimír, the current governor of the Slovak National Bank (NBS), guilty of bribery committed during his tenure as Minister of Finance. Kažimír allegedly bribed František Imrecze, then head of the Financial Administration, to expedite tax proceedings concerning VAT refunds for a group of companies. Kažimír was fined 200,000 EUR. The court ruled that he would face a one-year prison sentence should he fail to pay the fine, but the conviction is not yet final.[1]

This decision marks a significant moment in Slovakia’s ongoing struggle with corruption and its institutional implications. Based on Transparency International data, Slovakia is at the tail of the perception of corruption, and the situation has deteriorated since the government of PM Fico returned to power. [2] 

New Code of Conduct for High-Ranking Public Officials in Slovakia?

The Slovak government has introduced a new Code of Conduct for high-ranking public officials.[1] The proposal is not yet effective, but it is nearing the end of the interdepartmental review process, during which various government bodies, NGOs, and the public can provide comments.[2] The government is now considering the submitted comments to determine which ones must be implemented to improve the proposal. If critical comments are impossible to implement, it may even change course by scrapping it altogether.

While the adoption of ethics codes is generally a welcome development in terms of improving the quality of the executive and public service, this particular proposal has attracted criticism for three reasons: it unduly concentrates power under the PM withouth a legal basis, restricts the freedom of association of civil servants and top officials with NGOs, and also highlights the government’s own ethical misgivings. On the last point, as I have written on this blog, it was recently revealed that the Defence Minister in Fico’s Cabinet failed to declare a seaside villa owned by his wife in Croatia, which led to a debate about ethics in government and transparency.[3]