Foreign Minister Cimoszewicz urged to resign over links to business

There have been calls for Foreign Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz to resign, after it was revealed that he is a member of the supervisory board of the consulting company, Business Management & Consulting (BM&C). Under the 1997 Anti-Corruption Law, people in senior government positions may not be members of company management or supervisory boards. Cimoszewicz set up BM&C, together with other ministers from the previous Democratic Left Alliance (SLD)-Polish Peasants Party (PSL) coalition, in 1997. "If the accusations are true, he should step down from his ministerial office," said deputy Sejm speaker Janusz Wojciechowski. "In fact, the company is not running a business. I have applied for its liquidation. I have done ev erything possible. The procedures take time," Cimoszewicz told Zycie. Treasury Minister Wieslaw Kaczmarek was also a member of the BM&C supe rvisory board, but he resigned from the post. (Zycie, pp. 1, 3) A.Z.