For the next three years wage increase, fire–fighting vehicles purchase and strengthening the capacity of the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs are set as priorities in the budget by the The Ministry of the Interior (MoI) of the Republic of Latvia.
The priority of the Ministry of the Interior for the next three years is to increase the wages of internal affairs officials.
It has been achieved that the for next three years there will be allocated base funding of the state budget in amount of €24 million. The Ministry has also made its priority for 2023 to allocate an additional €4.7 million to increase the salaries of employees in the Ministry of the Interior institutions.
To strengthen the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs capacity, additional funding is requested to increase the wages of the staff.
It is also necessary to raise the wages of the employees of the State Insurance Agency that will require €4.1 million.
To improve the law enforcement education quality, the funding is needed to establish a long–term consortium for Internal Security Academy, as well as the development of educational programs and the construction of a new training building. The long-term consortium will be formed between the Ministry of the Interior, the State Police College, Riga Stradiņš University and the University of Latvia.
Among the priorities of the Ministry of the Interior for the next year, there is also purchase of special firefighting and rescue vehicles to replace worn-out equipment and improve direct functions of the Resque Service performance that will require € 21.8 million.
Around €25 million is also needed to continue the construction of Disaster Management Centers to ensure that more services and institutions are co–located.
The Minister of the Interior will continue to promote the strengthening of the external border between Latvia and the European Union in long-term, improving its surveillance and protection against the flows of illegal migrants.
As the Ministry of Finance reported earlier, the ministries are seeking €2.06 billion for priority actions in the next year’s budget.
Ministries have indicatively earmarked a higher amount for the upcoming years, with €2.68 billion in the 2024 budget and €2.78 billion in the 2025 budget for priority actions.
The Ministry of Welfare wants €139.946 million in the 2023 budget to implement priority measures, the Ministry of Culture – €91.713 million, the Ministry of the Interior – €86.608 million and the Ministry of Agriculture – €66.14 million.
The Ministry of Justice wants €20.851 million, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – €18.646 million and the Ministry of Finance – €15.592 million for priority measures in 2023.
The Ministry of Defence has not requested funds for priority actions in the coming year.
In year 2022, the ministries wanted an extra €1.68 billion for priority measures.