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President Ilves: a large number of mistakes made at local governments are caused by lack of knowledge

05.03.2010

“The reputation of our country and the scope of foreign investments also depend on the extent of corruption at local government level, as well as the perceived scale of corruption, even if everything is okay on paper,” said the Head of State. The Baltic Sea strategy and the prevention of the threat of corruption at local government level were the main issues discussed at yesterday’s meeting of the President’s Roundtable on Local Government and Regional Development.

The Director of Audit of the Local Government Audit Department of the National Audit Office of Estonia, Ms. Airi Mikli, spoke about the anticipation and prevention of corruption threat in rural municipalities and towns.

President Ilves acknowledged the work of the National Audit Office of Estonia, emphasising the importance of preventing corruption.

“The reputation of our country and the scope of foreign investments also depend on the extent of corruption at local government level, as well as the perceived scale of corruption, even if everything is okay on paper,” said the Head of State. “I do not mean to generalise, as the majority of the rural municipality and city governors perform their work honestly and with commitment, but it is apparent that several mistakes have been made in a number of local governments, largely due to a lack of knowledge. The assistance of the National Audit Office of Estonia is highly important here.”

Mr. Georg Sootla (Professor of Public Policy at Tallinn University) and Mr. Sulev Lääne (the R&D Director of the Department of Political Science and Governance at Tallinn University) who are members of the organisational committee of the “Baltic Sea Strategy – a New Challenge for Knowledge-Based Regional and Local Governance and Integrated Co-operation”, which is to take place on March 9th at Tallinn University, also took the floor at the work meeting of the President’s Roundtable on Local Government and Regional Development.

The President’s Roundtable on Local Government and Regional Development consists of representatives of the county local-government associations and their umbrella organisations. The function of the roundtable is to formulate recommendations for the President of the Republic in questions related to regional development.


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