Poland's treasury minister fired over gas deal

[April 20, 2013]  WARSAW, Poland (AP) -- Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Friday fired the treasury minister for failing to properly oversee state-run companies, in particular a gas deal one of them signed with Russia.

Tusk said Mikolaj Budzanowski would be replaced by the current deputy administration minister, Wlodzimierz Karpinski. He said there had been an insufficient exchange of information between the treasury minister and the state-owned companies he was supposed to oversee.

Budzanowski was recently criticized for his lack of knowledge about a memorandum that state gas giant PGNiG had signed with Russia's Gazprom agreeing to assess the costs of a possible new pipeline that would bypass Ukraine.

To Tusk's embarrassment, Russia disclosed the signing, of which he had no information.

Earlier, Budzanowski was also criticized for ignoring the mounting financial problems of the state airline, LOT, and a breach of standards by the management of the Warsaw Stock Exchange. The presidents of LOT and the exchange were fired in recent months.

[Associated Press]

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