P.M. OFFERS TO RESIGN

Press, Volume C, Issue 29554, 1 July 1961, Page 11

P.M. OFFERS TO RESIGN

'•'’Dereliction Of Duty” (N.Z. Preet A»sn—Copyright) HELSINKI. June 30. The Finnish Prime Minister (Mr Vieno Sukselainen) has tendered his resignation, the Finnish news agency reported. Mr Sukselainen has bean found guilty of administrative irregularities in his capacity as Director-General of the Board of the Finnish State Pensions Institution. A court hearing ordered him to be dismissed from his poet on the board It found 16 other board members guilty of similar charges, and imposed fines of up to 450.000 marks (about £500). Three were dismissed. The case, which had been going on for a year, concerned the Pensions’ Institution’s housing projects in which the court found that State loans had been granted to shareholders at very low interest rates. The Prime Minister tendered his resignation at a Cabinet meeting last night with President Urho Kekkonen - discus- the situation after the court's judgment on Wednesday. It was not stated whether President Kekkonen had accepted the Prime Minister's resignation. An official statement merely said that a new Cabinet meeting with the President would be held on Monday “when the arrangements made necessary by the Prime Minister's tendered resignation would be decided." Tshombc Denies Agreement (N Z.P.A -Reuter—Copyright) ELISABETHVILLE. June 29 President Tshombe of Katanga tonight denied that any agreement— other than an economic one—had been signed between his State and the Central Congo Government.