Slovak President Michal Kováč on April 14 accepted the resignation of Transportation, Post and Telecommunication Minister Alexander Rezeš for health reasons, the Slovak press agency TASR reported.
"The president today accepted the resignation of Alexander Rezeš, effective April 15," TASR quoted presidential spokesman Vladimír Štefko as saying.
Rezeš first tendered his resignation at the beginning of March, citing unexplained health problems as his reason for wanting to leave his post, but Kováč did not immediately accept it. "I am leaving the ministry with sadness in my heart, because I am not going to witness the completion of some great projects," Rezeš said, adding that he was departing nonetheless with a clear conscience. "I'm leaving with clean hands and not just clean paper," the former minister said.
He won't be in job lingo too long. According to the Slovak daily Národná Obroda, Rezeš said he planned to become chairman of the supervisory board of the steel producer VSŽ Košice.
Taking Rezeš's place is Ján Jasovský, 47, who has been the director of Slovenská Pošta s.p., the state-run postal monopoly, since December 1995. Kováč, in accepting Jasovský to the post, stressed the strategic importance of the ministry and the importance of the projects that remain to be done to the country's regional and overall development, according to the daily Slovenská Republika. The president added that he was pleased that Jasovský, who graduated from the Transportation University in Žilina, was not new to the field.
Compiled by Richard Lewis from press reports and Reuters
