The police are investigating issues in the electricity producer Slovenske Elektrarne (SE) from before the privatization of 66 percent of its shares by Italian company Enel was completed in April 2006, confirmed SE spokesperson Jana Burdova on Friday.
According to Burdova, SE managers and other staff on Thursday were providing all necessary assistance to the police officers, who were still securing documents from SE's offices.
The privatization of SE was completed in 2006 under the second government of Mikulas Dzurinda (2002-2006), when a majority 66-percent stake in the energy utility was acquired by Italian Enel for 839 million euros (1.1 billion U.S. dollars).
Among those who were heavily involved in the privatization process were then deputy prime minister Ivan Miklos and economy minister Pavol Rusko.
Current Premier Robert Fico maintains that the transaction was disadvantageous and suspective. His government sees the contract as a controversial aspect of the privatization on the lease of the Gabcikovo waterworks, which are controlled by the state.
According to Agriculture Minister Lubomir Jahnatek, Enel obtained a suspiciously favorable contract for running the waterworks. The contract was signed for 30 years, with the energy utility obtaining 35 percent of the revenues from the production and sales of energy generated in Gabcikovo each year.
Security analyst Milan Zitny pointed out that the police have also been looking into the possible offence of misrepresenting financial and trading records at the company.
"This could mean that the majority stakeholder Enel wants to screw the records via its managers in order to enrich itself at home," added Zitny.