The largest ministerial offices in the Latvian government belong to Health Minister Hosams Abu Meri (New Unity), Prime Minister Evika Siliņa (New Unity), and Defence Minister Andris Sprūds (The Progressives), according to information obtained by the news agency LETA.
Abu Meri’s office employs 20 staff members, including the Ministry of Health’s parliamentary secretary, Līga Āboliņa. Of all office employees, 16 are ministerial advisers, 10 of whom are non-staff (external) advisers. In addition to advisers, Abu Meri’s office includes several positions not found in other ministers’ offices, such as a ministerial office assistant and an assistant for international communications.
Prime Minister Siliņa’s office employs 14 staff members. Her office staff list also includes the parliamentary secretary, Karina Ploka. In total, Siliņa has eight advisers covering various policy areas, as well as three consultants. The Prime Minister’s office also includes a head of office and the Prime Minister’s secretary.
Meanwhile, Defence Minister Sprūds’ office consists of 13 employees. Nine of them are advisers in various fields, three of whom are non-staff advisers. Sprūds’ office also includes the Ministry of Defence’s parliamentary secretary, Liene Gātere (The Progressives), who this week also became a member of the Saeima.
The smallest offices—each with three employees—belong to Interior Minister Rihards Kozlovskis
(New Unity) and Climate and Energy Minister Kaspars Melnis (Union of Greens and Farmers). At the same time, neither of these ministers’ offices includes the ministries’ parliamentary secretaries among their staff.
Overall, eight ministries have not listed their parliamentary secretaries as employees of the ministers’ offices.
Some individuals work in more than one ministerial office. For example, Riga City Council member Mārtiņš Kossovičs (The Progressives) serves as a non-staff adviser on good governance issues in the office of Transport Minister Atis Švinka (The Progressives), as well as a non-staff adviser on defence industry development in Sprūds’ office.
Not all employees of ministers’ offices receive remuneration for their work.
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