Godmanis urges 'new faces' in government

Feb 18, 2009
TBT staff

Prime Minister Godmanis says change is coming to the government. Photo from archive

RIGA – Prime Minister Ivars Godmanis has said there will be changes in the government, stating that new faces will be appointed to fill the empty agriculture and culture minister positions as well as other vacant positions.

He explained that the optimization and restructuring of the state administration system will refer not only to state agencies, but also to ministries, with an emphasis on involving new people in the government.

"New people should be involved in the government," said Godmanis in an interview with Latvian public television.

"It refers to the agriculture and culture ministers, but there will be more changes. I will not reveal these other changes, but they will be significant," said Godmanis, adding that there will be changes not only in ministers, but also in sectors supervised by particular parties.

The new candidates will be named next week, the prime minister did not want to reveal any names yet.

In an interview with the Latvian commercial television LNT, Godmanis said that the problem with the president's loss of confidence in him has aroused because he had promised to implement his government restructuring plan, but the coalition parties did not reach an agreement on it. Therefore the coalition agreed earlier on partly restructuring, but the president had received false information that there will be no restructuring at all.

"The president received information that we will not do anything. Unfortunately, that was the information published," he said.

At present the coalition has agreed in principle to implement the government restructuring plan proposed by the People's Party.

On Feb. 20, the government will revise further economic forecasts and by March 31 all the necessary documents for budget amendments have to be prepared.

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