How Extensive Are Business Relations Between the State and Companies in Slovakia?

This autumn, almost 19,000 companies had a business relationship with the state or other public-sector bodies, according to databases of the consultancy Bisnode. By October 2019, 17,437 legal entities and 1,285 natural persons had been entered in the Register of Public Sector Partners. Most of them operate in the retail sale of pharmaceutical products (915), the construction of residential and non-residential buildings (781) and other business and management consultancy (613).

The Act on the Register of Public Sector Partners came into force on 1 February 2017 and was intended to be the Slovak government’s main tool for preventing the state from doing business with shell companies. Under this Act, the state may trade and conclude contracts only with entities entered in the Register of Public Sector Partners. When registering, companies must disclose their ownership structure right down to the level of the ultimate beneficial owner.

“The register contains the identification details of the public sector partner together with details of the ultimate beneficial owner, i.e. the natural person who benefits from the partner’s activities. Registration is carried out by an authorised person, who is also obliged to verify the ultimate beneficial owner at least once a year as at 31 December of the calendar year.”

A partner may thus be a natural person, a natural person in business or a legal entity that receives money or assets from the state or other public-sector bodies above the statutory limit.

According to the databases, as of October 2019 a total of 17,437 legal entities and 1,285 natural persons were doing business with the state. “The largest groups were limited liability companies (14,828) and joint-stock companies (1,491).” As many as 11,225 public sector partners report turnover of between €0 and €999 thousand, followed by 2,452 companies with turnover of between one million and €1,999,000.

Number of public sector partners by region

Source: Bisnode