All Slovak public administration institutions will be obliged to publish any contracts involving allocation of state or public resources on the internet as of January 1, 2011, based on a revision to the Civil Code that parliament moved to the second reading on Tuesday, October 19, the SITA newswire reported.

According to the proposed revision all contracts will only take effect after being published on the internet for at least one day. Public institutions will also be allowed to back out of contracts within ten days after they are signed without giving any reason. If a contract includes an agreement on compensation in the event of withdrawal from the contract, it will not apply. The proposed revision is in line with the government's programme statement and the new regulations are supposed to secure transparent and more economical use of public resources, SITA wrote.

Contract provisions agreed upon for an indefinite period which rule out the possibility of a contract's termination are also invalid according to the revision. Contracts of public institutions as well as of organisations they establish will be published in the Central Contract Register.

The Central Contract Register is a public list of compulsorily published contracts administered by the Cabinet Office in an electronic form. All institutions to which the law on public access to information applies, that is ministries, state institutions and their subordinate organisations, public administration institutions as well as cities, villages and countries will be bound to publish contracts involving public funds.

Source: SITA