Slovak Agriculture Minister Stanislav Becík has received the letter of resignation that state-run forestry company Lesy SR general director Jozef Mindáš sent to him on Monday, July 6.
“It’s true: he asked that he be recalled from the post. I’ll make a decision on Friday, so as to secure all preconditions for the effective functioning of Lesy SR and to assure the public that I’ll undertake all these measures with the aim of making Lesy SR a stable, state-owned company,” Becík said during a visit to Palárikovo (Nitra Region), the TASR newswire reported.
According to Mindáš, the situation in which the company currently finds itself isn’t contributing to forestry’s good name. He rejected allegations that he is the source of the problems. “With full responsibility I declare that the allegations against me and the Lesy SR management are most likely not true,” said Mindáš, labelling information provided by Lesy SR employees to Prime Minister Robert Fico in an open letter as “clearly false”.
Fico last week urged Becík to remove Mindáš and the whole Lesy SR management if they didn’t step down by themselves. “We’ve got no reason to hesitate given that the situation in the company is the way it is. There’s tension, the management enjoys virtually no confidence, so these people must quit their posts immediately,” said the premier. “If they don’t do so themselves, then the agriculture minister will have to do it, very swiftly,” Fico said, after receiving word of alleged misappropriation of resources at Lesy SR. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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