Austerity measures are not leaving the public’s attention anytime soon. This time, the focus is on nine deputy state secretaries of ministries, each of whom last year received more than 100,000 dollars in total remuneration. BNN asked political scientist and co-owner of the company Mediju tilts, Filips Rajevskis, whether such pay is proportionate.
According to their official declarations, last year President Edgars Rinkēvičs received 103,262.74 euros in salary, while Prime Minister Evika Siliņa earned 126,942.94 euros. Is it proportionate that some deputy state secretaries earn more than the country’s top officials?
“The President, while not a politician and not bearing political responsibility, is still a supra-political figure, and in this case much of it has to do with public attitudes, re-election prospects, and so on. Meanwhile, deputy state secretaries, like members of company boards, bear full responsibility for their decisions. Day to day, they make decisions and approve documents that affect many people and businesses. Therefore, the bar of responsibility is quite high. Another question is whether any of them have ever been held accountable for failed decisions. Such cases are practically nonexistent, although there are rare instances where officials have had to answer for their actions,” Rajevskis says.
He explains that all of this must be viewed in balance:
“In many private companies, people with great responsibility also receive sufficiently high salaries.”
Many deputy state secretaries have also held well-paid positions on the boards and councils of state-owned companies. Asked by BNN whether perhaps officials at this level should refrain from taking on such roles, Rajevskis reminds that since January this year significant restrictions on the combining of public offices have been introduced, and by 31 August many had to choose which position they would continue to hold.
However, the political scientist points to another problem: “If someone from business is invited to sit on the board or council of a state-owned company, they must become a public official. For an outsider who might otherwise want the position, this creates enormous complications. So, it’s not always possible to recruit suitable people for these roles, because they don’t want to face all the restrictions that come with public official status. But deputy state secretaries are already public officials — they already file income declarations, live under the restrictions applied to officials, and
so one extra position is more a question of money than anything else.”
Although restrictions have been set on combining public posts, exceptions are allowed. This raises the ongoing question: how well can someone actually perform while sitting on two chairs at once?
“The story of re-establishing company boards has essentially been a major fiasco. One of the requirements for Latvia to join the OECD was indeed to restore boards in state and municipal companies. But no one said those boards had to be filled with civil servants. A company board has its own function — in a normal situation it is represented by competent and qualified shareholders. In this case, however, boards have largely become a way for officials to earn extra pay. The restrictions were introduced precisely to prevent public officials from sitting on multiple chairs at the same time,” Rajevskis concludes.
Read also: Latvian Government talks about austerity, yet nine deputy state secretaries received truly enviable sums last year