ZUS board backs labor minister's decision to remove Gajek as chairman

The supervisory board of social security office ZUS has backed the decision by deputy prime minister and labor minister Longin Komolowski to remove chairman Leslaw Gajek. Gajek has been replaced as ZUS head by the current deputy minister of labor, Ewa Lewicka. The official reason given by the minister for Gajek's removal is his failure to cooperate satisfactorily with the ministry, and inefficiency in the introduction of a new computer system for ZUS's operations. Gajek's dismissal has been greeted with a certain amount of surprise among politicians, since he is credited with healing ZUS's finances. Not even the prime minister's chief adviser, Teresa Kaminska, or Ewa Lewicka and the ZUS supervisory board, question his success in repaying all the company's commercial credits and improving the collection of premiums. (Rzeczpospolita, p.A4) M.T.