RIGA — The fate of Dzintars Jakans, Latvia’s embattled internal revenue chief, remains up in the air although Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis said it will likely be resolved in about two weeks.

Jakans is locked in a bitter feud with finance minister Einars Repše, who last year decided to sack the civil servant for insubordination, a move that ministers seldom resort to.

However, rival ministers from the People’s Party and other parties have argued that the decision to fire Jakans was entirely political and should be reversed. Repše agreed to a compromise according to which Jakans would be transferred to a different post.

However, on Tuesday Cabinet ministers led by the People’s Party, voted against Repše’s proposal to transfer Jakans to a custom tax and administration department in the Finance Ministry.

It was the second time that the government was unable to agree on what to do with Jakans. Indeed, now that parliament has given the government the mandate to continue talks with international lenders, Jakans has become the latest bone of contention in a fragile coalition that seemingly cannot function without tension.

Dombrovskis, who along with Repše belongs to the New Era Party, has admitted that the situation around Jakans is unjustifiably politicized and even absurd.

On Wednesday the prime minister took a stab at New Era’s rivals. “One can see a clear desire on the part of the People’s Party to drag out this question,” he told LNT. “Not even one minister from the People’s Party wanted to discuss taking this bureaucrat on board.”

Dombrovskis said the issue should be finalized in two weeks.

Repse originally suspended Jakans in October for disciplinary actions, and on Jan. 12 proposed that the bureaucrat be fired.

Among other violations, Jakans is accused of failing to organize an open competition for high-level posts in the State Revenue Service even though Repse had ordered him to do so.