Deputy Treasury Minister bows out of Polish Steel Mills privatization

Deputy Treasury Minister, Andrzej Szarawarski, has withdrawn from participating in work concerning the privatization of Polish Steel Mills (PHS). He explained that he did not want to have a direct influence on the selection of an investor for (PHS), as he had recently been involved in too many controversies. "Yesterday, we concluded a stage of parallel negotiations with two concerns, US Steel and LNM Holdings, which are interested in the PHS privatization. "I don't want to influence the final decision of the government," he said, adding that he would continue working in the Treasury Ministry. At the end of April, Silesian businessmen were reported to have offered US Steel a buy-out of PHS's liabilities. They in fact supported their offer by citing their long-standing business relationship with the Deputy Treasury Minister, (Puls Biznesu, p. 7; Rzeczpospolita, p. B3) A.Z.