Public administration bill re-think after Belka admits to difficulties

Following numerous protests and much speculation Prime Minister Marek Belka yesterday withdrew from his draft project a clause which would grant a PM the power to dismiss the heads of the central public administration offices. Belka admitted that such a bill would be a key to an unlimited swapping of personnel. "The project has caused a lot of emotions. Such reactions of the heads of offices are reasonable. These were not our intentions," declared Belka. He has removed part of the bill that states that an official could be dismissed if he failed to fulfill the politics of the Cabinet. Such a privilege would now be granted to the Prime Minister in the case of only two central offices instead of the 31 planned earlier. The two singled out for special attention are the Social Insurance Office (ZUS) and the Agricultural Social Insurance Fund (KRUS). (Rzeczpospolita, pp. A1, A4) A.K.