The Slovak cabinet agreed on joint candidates for the presidency and vice presidency of the FNM national privatisation agency at its December 8 session. The Democratic Party (DS) submitted the non-affiliated Jozef Kojda for the post of the FNM President, while the Party of the Democratic Left (SDĽ) proposed member Pavol Hulik for vice president. A vote in parliament was scheduled for the end of the week.
The cabinet also approved a draft revision to the 1999 state budget law. This will formally allow for an increase and subsequent decrease of 17.9 billion Slovak crowns in budgetary revenues from the National Bank of Slovakia (NBS - see bank restructuring story, page 1). This sum will be used for re-capitalizing state-owned banks. The law on the 1999 state budget stipulates that budget revenues or expenditures may increase or decrease by a maximum of 10% without changing the scheduled deficit.
Parliament plans to discuss the draft revision on December 10.
