The Public Sector Partner Registry is not just another compliance requirement. It is an infrastructure that saves the government millions, streamlines economic processes, and creates a fairer environment for transparent companies.
The Public Sector Partner Register is viewed by most business owners as a cost. Authorized persons, verification of ultimate beneficial owners, updates to ownership structures—all of this takes time and money.
But perhaps we’re looking at the wrong side of the equation.
The real question has never been whether the register costs anything. It has been about how much it would cost the state and the entire business community if this system did not exist. Slovakia has built a transparency infrastructure that has shifted the verification burden from the state to regulated professions—lawyers, notaries, banks, auditors, and tax advisors. Without it, the state would have to manually verify every ownership structure, employ hundreds of specialists, and bear costs in the tens of millions of euros annually—and that’s without factoring in protracted disputes, the return of EU funds, or reputational damage.
The register also offers a less visible benefit: it speeds up economic processes. When the public sector has access to a legally binding register with already verified data, it does not have to repeatedly vet every company from scratch. The result is faster contracts, faster approvals, and faster disbursement of funds. And in business, it’s not just whether you get the money that matters—it’s also when you get it.
Perhaps the greatest paradox of the registry is that its actual benefits are not visible. We do not see tenders that were not rigged. We do not see shell companies that never even entered the public procurement system. We do not see EU funds that did not have to be returned. We only see the costs.
