LJUBLJANA, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- Slovenian Financial Minister Dusan Mramor has stressed that the priority is to ensure the normal functioning of the national "bad bank", the Bank Asset Management Company (BAMC).
He made the remarks while commenting on the recent developments at BAMC prior to a session of the parliamentary Finance Policy Committee, the Slovenian Press Agency (STA) reported on Friday.
In his first public comments since the government sacked BAMC board president Lars Nyberg and CEO Tjorbjorn Mansson, Mramor said that BAMC has an important role to play in recouping taxpayer money invested in the bank bailout and helping get troubled companies back on their feet.
But he would not say directly whether it was his wish for Mansson to be fired along with Nyberg.
"The government's decisions are what they are," said Mramor when pressed about Mansson's recall.
Mramor would not comment on the allegations made by Nyberg after his dismissal that Mramor had told him in the summer that pressure had grown for Mansson to be fired, nor Nyberg's letter to Prime Minister Miro Cerar alleging that the case of troubled financial conglomerate Sava "smells of corruption."
Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar announced on Oct. 6 that his government's decision to dismiss the current president of the management board of the Bank Asset Management Company (BAMC), Lars Nyberg, and chief executive Torbjorn Mansson over allegations of excessive pay in the management board.
BAMC was established in 2013 to relieve the country's distressed banking system of "toxic" loans.
