DARS Chief Supervisor Refusing to Replace Management

DARS Chief Supervisor Refusing to Replace Management

The chief supervisor of state-owned motorway company DARS Robert Ličen said on Thursday he had been instructed on three separate occasions so far to replace DARS's CEO Matjaž Knez.

While insisting he would not do so without legal or business reasons, he said that two calls came directly from Infrastructure Minister Peter Gašperšič.

"If the CEO is from a different political camp, this must not and cannot be a reason for his replacement," Ličen, appointed under the outgoing government of Alenka Bratušek in August last year, said after a session of the supervisory board.

Ličen agrees that every owner has the right to replace the supervisors without giving an explanation and the supervisors in turn the right to replace the management, but he feels that making changes so frequently is bad for the company.

Refusing to replace Knez, who was appointed in 2012 under the Janez Janša government, he said individual groups with shared interests "want to get their own people to the posts, above all because of the deals tied to state-owned companies".

Gašperšič meanwhile denied for the STA having ever demanded that Ličen dismiss Knez. He also denied pressuring Ličen in any way.

Ličen said in his statement that he was not defending any management board member per se, but the management as an institution.

"Last year we had a record profit, auditors issued an unqualified opinion for the first time in DARS's history. There were small irregularities, but we definitely cannot speak of violations of legislation," he stressed.

There was already speculation after last year's overhaul of the supervisory board that the Knez-led management would have to go, but this has not happened yet.

Source: Slovenia Times