Education Minister Says Ouster Motion Unfounded, Inappropriate
The minister said in a press release that the ouster motion does not focus on his work but alleges wrongdoing on the part of his predecessor.
The opposition SDS filed the motion against Pikalo over an allegedly rigged tender at the ministry in 2009, when Pikalo was working at the Social Sciences Faculty (FDV) in Ljubljana.
The motion was based on an anonymous report accusing Pikalo, incumbent state secretary Aljuš Pertinač and former Education Minister Igor Lukšič of abusing office in order to secure EUR 700,000 for the FDV, at which both both Pikalo and Lukšič teach.
Pikalo pointed out today that interpellation was supposed to be about the political responsibility of the minister, his subordinates or the department. The ouster motion cannot be about the work of a previous minister, he said.
Irregularities committed in the previous term can be sanctioned but only under criminal law if a criminal acts is committed.
Pikalo moreover said that he was only a teacher at the FDV at the time of the tender and as such had no influence on the then minister Lukšič.
He also rejected the SDS's claims that too much of the funds awarded in the tender to the FDV was used for predominantly theoretical work and that some of the research material produced was completely inappropriate for the project.
Pikalo said that the interpellation proponents had the right to the freedom of speech, however their rights were limited with the rights of others, in this case most directly with the right to autonomous research of the FDV.