Welfare minister fired as scandal picks up speed

Latvian Prime Minister Andris Berzins last week fired Welfare Minister Andrejs Pozarnovs for failing to implement health care policies and for allegedly misusing a seaside resort for ministry employees in Jurmala.

Pozarnovs' party, For Fatherland and Freedom, will not fight the sacking and is recruiting another MP to fill the post.

Berzins said Pozarnovs' work in the Welfare Ministry had not been satisfactory, citing a nurses' strike last year and unfulfilled promises from the ministry to raise health workers' salaries as examples.

"This is not an easy decision. This is the first minister I have sacked as prime minister," Berzins said. "The minister (Pozarnovs) has not fulfilled duties required in his ministry."

Berzins said Pozarnovs was also unable to implement necessary changes to the welfare policy.

"Other ministries are also lagging behind, but there is no other ministry which raises so many questions among the public," Berzins said.

The discovery of Pozarnovs' possible involvement in the alleged mismanagement of the Jurmala property was the last straw, Berzins said.

On April 13, Maija Porsnova, state secretary at the Ministry of Welfare, sent documents to Berzins that she said implicated Pozarnovs.

Porsnova was suspended by Pozarnovs a few days before she sent the documents.

Berzins and Welfare Ministry officials have remained tight-lipped about the Jurmala property affair.

Seventeen pages of documents detailing the matter, Berzins said, have been passed on to the prosecutor general's office for further investigation.

Pozarnovs says his firing was politically motivated and denies any wrongdoing.

Fatherland and Freedom head Maris Grinblats said the party had already begun lining up possible replacements for Pozarnovs.

"We will give serious thought to the nomination and in the next few days the party will hold individual consultations with likely candidates," he said.

Berzins' adviser Peteris Elferts said the current minister of environment and regional development, Vladimirs Makarovs, will likely assume Pozarnovs' duties until a replacement is found.