On January 30, Slovak President Ivan Gašparovič accepted the resignation of Defence Minister František Kašický and appointed Jaroslav Baška (32) to the post.
Kašický announced his resignation last week after a scandal involving tenders for cleaning services.
Baška has served as State Secretary of the Defence Ministry. In his address, the president stressed that it is sometimes a minister’s responsibility to take the blame for issues they did not cause. He also said he was satisfied that Baška was taking up the post, as he knows the sector well.
Jaroslav Baška graduated from the Electrotechnical Faculty at Žilina University in 1998. He worked in Matador, in Puchov, until 2002, as an IT project manager and economic director. In the previous electoral term, he was a parliamentary deputy for Smer-SD. From 2003 to 2006, he was the mayor of Dohňany, in western Slovakia.
On January 30, before resigning from his post, Defence Minister Kašický revoked the tenders that had cost him his job, the minister's spokesperson, Vladimir Gemela, told SITA. This came eight days after he dismissed Vladimír Vaško, the official responsible for administering the tender process. SITA
p>Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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