TIS: Ministers Replaced 55% of Directors of Firms under Remit in First Year

Bratislava, December 14 (TASR) - During their first year in office, the ministers of the fourth government of Robert Fico (Smer-SD) replaced as many as 55 percent of the people in senior posts in the organisations, businesses and companies falling under their remit, according to the findings of anti-corruption organisation Transparency International Slovakia (TIS). While one in two directors had to go at ministries led by Voice-SD nominees, ministers for Smer-SD have replaced three out of four directors. Environment Minister Tomas Taraba (a Slovak National Party/SNS nominee) has replaced as many as 90 percent. The personnel changes have thus been more intense than under the previous government led by Igor Matovic ('Slovakia' party, previously OLANO), which only replaced 42 percent of top managers during the first year of its term, stated TIS. The current coalition replaced as many as 119 of a total of 216 directors of organisations fully or partly financed from the state budget, chiefs of the largest state-run enterprises and joint-stock companies during the first year of its rule. Matovic's government only replaced 90 of 212 directors for the comparable period. According to TIS, the avalanche of personnel changes launched by the current government is characterised by non-transparency, as it's abandoned the practice of open public contests, partly introduced by its predecessor. Concerning SNS, TIS pointing to a problem concerning the expertise of the new managers. The environment minister has already managed to replace 19 of a total of 21 directors, with only the posts of chiefs of the Slovensky raj (Slovak Paradise) and Pieniny national parks still in place. Taraba has filled several posts directly with functionaries of the SNS and Life parties. Culture Minister Martina Simkovicova (an SNS nominee) has also launched personnel changes, but apparently due to a problem with finding her own nominees, she's replaced only nine of the 32 directors (28 percent) so far. A similar proportion was replaced by her predecessor, Natalia Milanova (OLANO). TIS pointed to the problem of a lack of transparency concerning the replacements. Ministries currently don't publish records from completed selection procedures on their websites, and they often don't publish any information at all about them. ko/df