A high-ranking official appointed to root out corruption in a key Slovakian agency has been arrested by police investigating corruption, in a case said to highlight the country’s struggle to reform its institutions.
Josef Kiss, the general director of the Agricultural Payment Agency, was one of five high-level officials detained and then released without charge by officers working on Operation Secretary, an inquiry into the alleged misuse of EU and state funds. He denies any wrongdoing.
The agency is responsible for distributing subsidies to Slovakian farmers and has a history of being implicated in allegations of financial misconduct, with the EU’s fraud watchdog finding widespread irregularities in its payments after an audit in 2021.
Kiss, whose predecessor leading the agency, Juraj Kožuch, has been indicted in relation to alleged bribery, which he denies, was appointed to the position in June 2021 under Samuel Vlčan, an agriculture minister in the government led by OĽaNO, a centre-right party that promised to fight corruption.
Kiss was tasked with clamping down on practices that could open up the agency to charges of malpractice as the new government sought to ensure that the EU continued to fund it after repeated scandals.
The OĽaNO government, however, has since faced allegations of its own. Last month, Vlčan asked to be relieved of his ministerial position after claims that a company to which he had links had received a €1.6m (£1.4m) subsidy from the environment ministry.
“Despite the fact that I do not see a violation of the law or any violation of ethical principles on the part of the company, nor on my part, I do not want to remain in office,” Vlčan said at the time.
The prompt for Kiss’s arrest appears to have been a complaint by Zuzana Šubová, a former head of the anti-corruption unit of the Agricultural Payment Agency who is now the leader of the Pirate party. She said she had done her “duty”.
Marek Para, a lawyer representing Kiss, said: “My client testified extensively and took a very clear position on Zuzana Šubová’s false claims. He was subsequently released from detention and was not even charged.”
A police spokesperson said that in addition to the arrests they had searched three houses and carried out “five searches of other premises in the building of the ministry of agriculture and rural development, the building of the Agricultural Payment Agency and the premises of the affected business company”.
The spokesperson added: “In the case, charges have not yet been brought but the necessary procedural actions are still ongoing, so it is not possible to provide any more detailed information at this time.”
The murder five years ago of the journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancee, Martina Kušnírová, both 27, after his investigation into links between top local politicians and the Italian mafia had been seen as a watershed moment for many Slovaks. It prompted mass protests and the fall of the government led by Robert Fico, of the leftwing populist party Smer-SD.
In February 2020, the OĽaNO (Ordinary People and Independent Personalities) party won parliamentary elections and formed a coalition government on the promise of cleaning up Slovakian politics.
It struggled to keep its minority coalition partners happy and collapsed in December last year. A caretaker government was appointed by the president, Zuzana Čaputová, and elections are due in September. Recent surveys suggest the public believe bribery is more prevalent today than before 2020.
