Klemenc, who has most recently served as director of private banking at the state-owned NLB bank, succeeds as of Friday acting director Boštjan Skalar, for whom the SPIRIT board proposed a dismissal in February due to lack of transparency in a call for project applications for new product development in 2013-2015.

SPIRIT board chairman Marjan Hribar told the STA in March that the board would propose to the government to replace Skalar with Sergej Garantini, a former crisis manager of Svea Inženiring and Svea Gaber.

However, the daily Dnevnik reported last week that Garantini failed to successfully pass the hearing before the government staffing commission. Both Garantini and Klemenc have had jobs with NLB.

Economy Minister Metod Dragonja, who according to the business daily Finance put in his word for both candidates, had served as head of the NLB Moscow subsidiary.

SPIRIT became operational on 1 January 2013 after the previous government decided to merge the Agency for Entrepreneurship and Foreign Investment (JAPTI), Slovenian Tourism Board (STO) and the Technology Agency (TIA).