Estonia’s Finance Ministry has decided not to require managers of state-owned companies to disclose their financial interests, arguing that concerns about privacy outweigh the potential public benefit.
Postimees wrote on Monday that currently members of parliament, ministers, political advisers, senior civil servants, and heads of government agencies must submit declarations of interest. These declarations allow anyone to see how much individuals involved in governing Estonia earn annually, what their debt burden is, and what real estate, vehicles, securities, and business holdings they own.
However, managers of state-owned companies, state foundations, and some government agencies are exempt from this requirement — unless the supervising ministry deems it necessary. As a result, the financial interests of the heads of organizations such as RMK, the Health Insurance Fund, the Unemployment Insurance Fund, Elering, Eesti Raudtee, Tallinn Airport, the Port of Tallinn, and Rail Baltic Estonia are not publicly visible.
In other words, the ministry selectively decides which state-owned companies and the leaders of their subordinate institutions must submit declarations.
The Ministry of Finance believes such a measure would be too intrusive for company executives. The Ministry did not consider it appropriate to introduce a universal declaration requirement. In its view, the privacy of managers of state-owned companies outweighs the public interest. Declarations of interest are considered ineffective as a tool for preventing corruption.
“The requirement carries the risk of discouraging strong private-sector experts from serving on supervisory boards, while its effectiveness in detecting bad intentions would unfortunately remain limited,” said Solveig Niitra, spokesperson for the Ministry of Finance.
Niitra added to Postimees that the decision not to impose a requirement for managers of state-owned companies to submit declarations of economic interests is made at the ministerial level (currently Finance Minister Jürgen Ligi), meaning it is a political decision.
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