PRESIDENT Ivan Gašparovič has refused to name Vladimír Tvaroška as the new vice-governor of the Slovak central bank (NBS), despite the fact that Tvaroška was approved for the job by both the government and parliament in March this year.
The NBS is now in the position that it might have to take Slovakia into the eurozone in 2009 without a vice-governor for monetary policy, the Hospodárske noviny daily wrote.
According to the president, Tvaroška lacks the required experience in financial management for the job.
The Finance Ministry disagrees with the decision, which is the first time a Slovak president has defied such a nomination, and intends to challenge the president's decision in the Constitutional Court. It can take up to 15 months for the court to rule on cases.
According to Hospodárske noviny, the opposition Smer may have influenced the president's decision. Smer's Maroš Kondrót, a boyhood classmate of former secret service director Ivan Lexa, was allegedly involved in the affair, and according to his party peer, Igor Šulaj, was very much against Tvaroška's being named to this post.
Kondrót also served on the supervisory board of the IBeA3 security firm from 1997 to 1998 at the same time as Ingid Kučerová, Lexa's secret service secretary, who accompanied him to South Africa under the first Dzurinda administration while he was hiding out from criminal prosecution in Slovakia;
Compiled by Martina Jurinová from press reports
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