A STAFF member of the general directorate of the state-run forestry company Lesy SR, Ján Mičovský, whose critical open letter addressed to the sitting director of the company in June 2009 launched a process which culminated in a reshuffle of the company’s senior management, issued an “open notice” announcing that he was leaving his position in the company on January 12, the SITA newswire reported.
Mičovský announced his resignation to protest the failure of the company’s new management to respond to allegations of cronyism and ineffective handling of the company’s property which were described by Lesy SR employees in a letter addressed to the prime minister and agriculture minister on June 24, 2009.
“The management is not willing to face these serious accusations head on, it chooses ostrichism and says it will wait for the results of a police investigation,” Mičovský said, as quoted by SITA.
He said another reason for submitting his resignation is solidarity with former colleagues from the communications department of Lesy SR, who helped him prepare last year’s open letter, who were sacked by Lesy SR at the end of 2009.
Mičovský said that at the end of January he, along with his former colleagues at Lesy SR, will submit to Prime Minister Robert Fico a petition called People for Forests, signed by more than 18,000 people since June, demanding that forestry organisations and companies in Slovakia responsibly and transparently manage the country’s forests, without political influence and interference from interest groups, SITA wrote.
