Deputy Treasury Minister latest casualty of AWS-UW coalition break-up

Deputy Treasury Minister Alicja Kornasiewicz has been relived of her duties by Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek. Kornasiewicz was charged in the Ministry with overseeing the privatization in the banking, insurance and telecommunications sectors. One of her most notable projects was the successful negotiation and sale of a 35% stake in Telekomunikacja Polska S.A. (TPSA) to the consortium of France Telecom and Kulczyk Holding. She was also responsible for supervising the privatization of Poland's second largest retail bank Pekao S.A. and the partial privatization of the largest insurer Powszechny Zaklad Ubezpieczen S.A. (PZU). She joined the government in 1997 on the recommendation of the then junior coalition partner Freedom Union (UW), but after the collapse of the government, her position became untenable. She has often been cited as the potential successor as National Bank of Poland (NBP) president or president of the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE). (Gazeta Wyborcza, page 2) S.M.