The director general of Tipos, Slovakia’s state-run lottery company, Stanislav Žiačik, resigned on September 28, citing personal reasons, the SITA newswire wrote. Žiačik resigned before the Tipos Supervisory Board was set to deliver its report based on an investigation of contracts which Tipos had awarded to the PR agency VYV, which had been co-owned by Žiačik until 2001. Finance Minister Ivan Mikloš accepted Žiačik's resignation, his spokesman Martin Jaroš told SITA.
Media reported about several suspicions related to Žiačik’s tenure last week. Following the reports, Mikloš ordered an investigation of Žiačik's activities which revealed that the PR agency was awarded contracts by Tipos also during the first term of Žiačik between 2002 and 2006 as well as after his return to head the lottery in the summer of this year.
Last week, Mikloš said he would decide soon whether the manager would remain in his position or not. The minister said he did not want to act based only on a newspaper article and was to receive the report on September 29.
Žiačik confirmed to the Nový čas daily that he was a partner in VYV but said he sold his stake in 2001. He also said that he respects the professional agencies from which Tipos bought PR services. Smer chairman Robert Fico last Wednesday called the contracts awarded to VYV by Tipos "unprecedented audacity." He announced his party would closely monitor what the governing coalition would do.
Source: SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
