Telecom boss quits amid dispute with government

Føroya Tele CEO Jan Ziskasen and committee chairman Ómar Svavarsson have resigned from their roles.

According to newspaper Dimmalætting, the two informed the finance minister on Friday that they were stepping down because of the government’s plans to separate the network branch from the telephone branch of the partially state-owned company ahead of a future privatisation programme.

Ziskasen, who has been the company’s CEO since 2015, wrote in a memo to staff that the government’s plans interfere with the running of the company.

 >> SEE ALSO Government aims to sell shares in state companies

The now former CEO was a committee member of Føroya Tele’s subsidiary firm NET until this spring, when the finance ministry reshuffled the committee, which resulted in Ziskasen losing his committee seat.

Ziskasen writes in his memo that losing his NET committee seat leaves him with restricted insight and involvement in a subsidiary for which, as a consortium CEO, he has full responsibility. These are changes he cannot accept, and they form the basis for his resignation.

The memo does not mention the reasons for Føroya Tele committee chairman Svavarsson’s resignation.

Finance minister Jørgen Niclasen has called Ziskasen and Svavarsson in for a meeting early next week to discuss the situation.

Translated by prosa.fo