On March 11 Slovak President Ivan Gašparovič dismissed Construction and Regional Development Minister Igor Štefanov who had been nominated by the Slovak National Party (SNS) and appointed Education Minister Ján Mikolaj (also from SNS) to lead the ministry until the parliamentary elections on June 12, the TASR newswire wrote.
Prime Minister Robert Fico called on Štefanov to step down on March 9 in the wake of an inspection at his ministry that was carried out by the Supreme Audit Office (NKÚ), which cast doubt on the use of around €4 million under the contract awarded after the much-discussed bulletin-board tender at the ministry.
SNS on March 10 announced that it recommended that Stefanov not comply with Fico's call. Later on that day, Fico sent a proposal to dismiss Štefanov to the president. TASR
(For more info on the tender, read NKÚ begins inspection into bulletin-board tender at Slovak Construction Ministry ).
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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