A WEEK after the Agriculture Minister Stanislav Becík submitted his resignation, upon which he agreed with his party boss Vladimír Mečiar, President Ivan Gašparovič accepted his resignation on September 16 and appointed Vladimír Chovan as the new minister.
Before taking up the ministerial post Chovan served as president of the Slovak Agriculture and Food Chamber.
The reason why Mečiar asked Becík to resign from the ministry is reportedly that the leader of the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) was not satisfied with appointments that Becík made to the management board of state forestry company Lesy SR.
Becík did not nominate persons close to the HZDS after nearly all of the previous managers were dismissed due to what employees of the company referred to as mismanagement and corruption.
