Slovenian Economy Minister Petrovic Resigns

Slovenian Economy Minister Jozef Petrovic has resigned after learning he is being probed over alleged fraud in deals with the administration. He was appointed only a month ago and denied any wrongdoing.

Slovenia's Economy Minister Jozef Petrovic resigned Friday after only four weeks in office in the center-left government of Prime Minister Miro Cerar.



His resignation followed media reports that he once worked at a company that was rigging prices in deals with state authorities.



Slovenian state television had reported that while working as a director in office supplier DZS, Petrovic had colluded with two more companies to fix much higher prices of office supplies that they sold to the public administration between 2007 and 2012.



Hard times ahead



"I did nothing illegal or unethical," Petrovic said Friday, adding that he resigned "to enable the government to work smoothly in these challenging times."



Petrovic is the first minister to resign from the Cerar government, which was appointed in snap elections in July. Political observers claimed it would be hard to imagine that the government would be able to last its full four-year term.



The eurozone nation narrowly avoided an international bailout for its ailing banks in December. The European Commission wants Slovenia to reduce its budget deficit to under 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2015 from 4.4 percent predicted for this year.



hg/cjc (Reuters, AFP)