Opinion article
Riga’s Deputy Mayor Vilnis Ķirsis stated in the TV program “Preses klubs” that fear of making mistakes dominates Latvia’s public administration, hindering innovation and bold decisions. In his view, an environment should be created where mistakes are not punished but treated as learning opportunities.
“Those who act will inevitably make mistakes; those who do nothing will never make mistakes,” emphasized Ķirsis. Reflecting on his experience in municipal government, the former mayor and current deputy mayor said: “I have two types of civil servants — those who are proactive and make mistakes, and then there are colleagues who want to fire them immediately, hang them out to dry, and so on. And then there are the other civil servants who see all this and say — I’d rather stay quiet and do nothing.” Ķirsis argues that civil servants must also be allowed to make mistakes.
“If we treat mistakes as something that warrants hanging or imprisonment, we won’t get anywhere,” said the Riga Deputy Mayor.
But in Latvia,
the problem is not a fear of making mistakes — the real issue is that mistakes are simply not acknowledged,
and no one takes responsibility for them.
Politicians and senior officials make multi-million-euro mistakes — with projects like Rail Baltica, e-health, Rīgas Satiksme procurements, digital voting systems — and then disappear into the shadows as masters of “collective responsibility,” where no names are ever named.
In Latvia, the consequence of a mistake is not the end of a career. The “penalty” is often a new position or a consultancy spot on a board.
Ķirsis’ message sounds reasonable in a country where mistakes are followed by consequences. But in Latvia, the “culture of punishment” is a myth — what prevails instead is a “culture of forgetting,” where failed projects are buried and political careerists continue climbing higher because “no one acted alone.”
Before calling for the courage to make mistakes, we should first introduce the courage to take responsibility for what has already been done.
Read also: President of Latvia warns: Rail Baltica and airBaltic must not become wreckage of broken promises