Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip is convinced that 6,500 euros a month that the new head of Enterprise Estonia will be receiving is not justified, reported ERR.
“This is almost twice more than 2,890 euros that the head of PRIA, another agency that is distributing EU aid in Estonia, is receiving every month. Also the head of the Environment Investment Centre or KIK is receiving twice less. There can be no justification,” said the PM in the parliament's Q&A yesterday.
Ansip added that while in general, a comparison with private sector salaries shows that heads of state enterprises are earning less than executives in the private sector, there were some organizations where top wages were unjustifiably high.
“I am still envious of these executives,” said Ansip who earns 3,999 euros a month as PM. He has also discussed possibilities to set caps to the salaries earned by chief executives of state enterprises and foundations.
Tõnis Palts, Estonian businessman and member of IRL, said that Ansip is going down the populist way by criticizing high wages of heads of state enterprises.
Speaking in political TV debate Foorum, Palts said that, speaking of Enterprise Estonia, Ansip should understand that the previous CEO received 5,500 euros a month. “He failed in his job and now an experience private sector manager has been hired. The agency plays such an important role in ensuring that the Estonian economy keeps growing. This cannot be compared to running PRIA or State Forest Management Centre. These wages are two different things,”
Palts added that the duty of the head of Enterprise Estonia is to mediate investments and make sure that Estonia’s economy keeps expanding.
“One percent of GDP growth is 170 million euros a year. It’s such an important job,” he added.
MP Aivar Riisalu (Centre Party) said that it’s high time to talk about accountability because the management of Enterprise Estonia has been only a big mess.
“We are also seeing that rail freight volumes are falling, Estonia is losing its international competitiveness, to say nothing about Eesti Energia,” added Riisalu.
Kajar Lember, a Social Democrat, added that a comparison of Enterprise Estonia and PRIA was telling. “Enterprise Estonia employs 270 people, PRIA has 370 or a hundred people more. PRIA’s annual budget is about 300 million euros, while the budget of Enterprise Estonia is about 100 million. PRIA has tens of times more customers than Enterprise Estonia. So my question is why should the CEO of Enterprise Estonia earn two times more than head of PRIA?”
Toomas Hõbemägi
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