Minister Simkovicova Dismisses Monuments Office Head Izvolt

Bratislava, December 10 (TASR) - Culture Minister Martina Simkovicova (a Slovak National Party/SNS nominee) on Tuesday dismissed Monuments Office director general Pavel Izvolt, the Culture Ministry's communications department head Petra Bacinska told TASR on Tuesday, adding that he will be replaced by archaeologist Mario Comisso as of Wednesday, December 11. Comisso stressed that there's no plan under his leadership to scrap the individual regional monuments offices or the Monuments Office itself. "I'm fully aware that my task is to build on the long-standing work of the office, which has managed the transformation from a scientific institute to an office with decision-making powers," he said, rejecting any notion of cancelling monument preservation research or work in the field of preservation research. Under the new management, the Monuments Office will undergo a personnel, financial and property audit in the coming months. The aim is to make the work of the office more efficient, to make the monuments information system fully functional and to minimise red tape related to individual processes. Decision-making across the various regional monuments offices should be streamlined. Over the past few months personnel changes have taken place at the helms of several national cultural institutions, including the Slovak National Theatre, the Slovak National Gallery and the Slovak National Museum. As a result of an amendment to the law, a change in the post of statutory representative of public-service broadcaster Slovak Television and Radio (STVR) was carried out. am/df