Slovakia's Supreme Audit Office Sends Health Ministry Protocols to Police Over Drug Policy Failures

Slovakia's Supreme Audit Office (NKÚ) is turning over audit protocols to police following a damning assessment of the country's pharmaceutical and healthcare policies. NKÚ Chairman Ľubomír Andrassy declared that the state has completely failed as a regulator of public health, abandoning its oversight role to private lobbyists in areas including drug policy and laboratory diagnostics. According to Andrassy, health policy has become a commodity for trade, with ministry officials serving as hostages to lobbyists amid clear conflicts of interest. The NKÚ, Slovakia's supreme audit institution responsible for overseeing government spending and operations, is transferring protocols from audits of both the health ministry and police departments to law enforcement authorities. The development raises questions about potential criminal misconduct in the health sector and whether Prime Minister Robert Fico will take action against the audit office leadership, as he previously did with other oversight bodies.