How did the government ministers of Silina go on business trips?

In the current government, some ministers went on business trips outside of Latvia several times a month, while another was away only once in all this time, and the total expenses for business trips ranged from less than a thousand to almost 60 thousand, reports Latvian Television program “de facto”. The information is collected for the period from September 15 to March 31 of this year.

Ministers are paid a 20% bonus in addition to the daily allowance for business trips. Prime Minister Evika Siliņa (JV) has used business class, but the only one of the ministers who has regularly used business class for flights is the former Minister of Foreign Affairs Arturs Krišjānis Kariņš (JV). On the other hand, Defense Minister Andris Spruds has spent many more days on business trips than the Prime Minister.

“If I wanted to agree to all the events where I am invited, I would not be in Latvia right now at all. You wouldn’t meet me today and probably wouldn’t meet me for a very long time, I could travel around the world in a circle from morning to night,” says Economy Minister Viktors Valainis (ZZS).

Since becoming the Minister of Economy, Valainis has been on only one business trip outside of Latvia – to Stuttgart, Germany. He explains that the emphasis is on what needs to be done at home, such as setting up the business environment. Similar arguments are made by the Minister of Education Anda Čakša (JV), who has been on two business trips in the last six months – to Strasbourg in France and Tallinn in Estonia.

“There are business trips in which, unfortunately, I was also unable to participate, which are related to development matters, for example, there was a very important congress just now in Singapore, but really – due to the current situation, we continue to work on the financing model, and balancing the loads, and discussions with other ministries are very important to me,” says Chaksha.

Minister of Justice Inese Lībiņa-Egnere (JV) and Minister of Welfare Uldis Augulis (ZZS) have been on three business trips since the approval of this government. “Regarding some kind of conferences – of course, I have the responsible employees who evaluate at what level it is and whether it is the minister’s level and whether it is necessary, because my opinion is that the minister simply does not have to go to every event and spend too much money,” says Augulis.

It is quite predictable that, according to the specifics of the field, Krišjānis Kariņš, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, went on the most business trips outside Latvia – 22. Prime Minister Evika Siliņa (JV) and Defense Minister Andris Sprūds (P) have each been on 16 business trips (counting different destinations if they were consecutive within the framework of one trip). It is true that Spruda’s business trips have been the longest and the number of days spent on them is only slightly behind that of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and more than that of the Prime Minister.

For example, Sprude’s combined visit to the USA and Canada lasted ten days. He visited Sweden twice – first by participating in the meeting of the defense ministers of the Baltic and Nordic countries, and a month and a half later by spending three days at a national level conference. “It is the biggest conference in Sweden. Usually only two or three foreigners are invited to this conference. I must say that I was one of those foreigners who was invited (..) My presentation was a national defense lesson in school, why we implement, how important it is to go along, so that we involve the public. As it was perceived in principle. Very positive,” says Sprud.

Not only Climate and Energy Minister Kaspars Melnis (ZZS), but also Transport Minister Kaspars Briškens (P) and Health Minister Hosams Abu Meri (JV) attended the UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai last December. In March, Briškens was the only minister-level foreign guest at a conference dedicated to the future of aviation (A4E) in Belgium, the program of which is dominated by aviation business representatives.

When asked if the ministers of other countries were not interested in being together with the representatives of major airlines, Bryshken answers “possible” and says: “I am pleased that I have the opportunity to be at this type of event. I’m sorry that there aren’t many other ministers there, but with this I highlight how strategically important aviation is for Latvia.” The conference was held in Brussels, a day before the planned Council of Ministers of Transport, so he had no doubts about attending it.

For several ministers, such as Armands Krauz (ZZS), Rihards Kozlovskis (JV) and Arvil Asheraden (JV), almost all of their business trips are related to the formal and informal ministerial councils of the European Union.

Culture Minister Agnese Logina attended the UNESCO conference on culture and art education in the United Arab Emirates and also represented Latvia at the World Government Summit. And from there to the Berlin Film Festival.

“I go on business trips if I feel and if my convictions and the team have studied that my presence can help either draw additional attention to this event, or it is possible for me to meet with various additional politicians,” says Agnese Logina (P).

The size of accompanying delegations also varies. Most often it is two to three people. Some ministers, such as agriculture, finance, home affairs, welfare or health, prefer senior civil servants. “If I go, I try to bring an official who is an expert on the matter to sit there and then continue to work on it later,” says Hossam Abu Meri.

Only advisors from the office accompanied the Minister of Transport Bryškens on business trips during the reviewed time period. Since April, however, it has changed. Kariņa, being in the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs, besides other members of the delegation, was regularly accompanied on business trips by a consultant who creates publicity content for social networks, including during visits to Japan and the USA.

Apart from the prime minister, the largest delegations were made up of the ministers of defense and foreign affairs. “The team as a whole is of course very important. Because people from my office are represented in the team, and also, of course, people from the ministry are important to be here. A person who records all this too. It’s important here to have people who do a lot of media relations,” says Sprud.

Travel costs are difficult to compare due to the different destinations. However, there are some exceptions. For example, a hotel for two nights in Brussels once cost the Minister of Defense 1,280 euros. The Ministry explains that at that time there was such a high demand that it was not even possible to accommodate the entire delegation in one hotel.

Ministers have used economy class for flights. “We fly only in economy class. In addition, we ask the airline to adjust the time, and also look at other airlines.. Often, we must admit, our responsible companies, which [komandējumu] organized, not offered [visas iespējas]. I’m talking about Ryanair, for example, which sometimes has convenient flight times if it’s in Belgium,” says Minister of Environmental Protection and Regional Development Inga Bērziņa (JV).

The resigned Minister of Foreign Affairs, Krišjānis Kariņš (JV) is the only one who has always flown in business class and used the VIP lounge twice. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs explains that the VIP hall was necessary to guarantee the arrival of the minister and the delegation to the flight, shortly before boarding.

Kariņš did not attend the plenary session of the Saeima this week, so “de facto” it was not possible to meet him to ask questions. But on April 15, in an interview with “Latvijas Radio” program “Krustpunktā”, he also touched on the issue of the choice of travel class, stating that he saw that not only prime ministers, but also foreign ministers used to fly on special flights.

“I boarded, I was assigned a seat, I sat down, I didn’t think or care about what class I was flying or not flying in. (..) In my experience, not only basically all prime ministers, but also foreign ministers fly in their government’s plane. They flew to me [Radoslavs] Sikorski, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland. He flew to America on that plane, parallel to the fact that the Prime Minister flew on another government plane. I recently had a meeting in Lithuania, where the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia flew to Vilnius and back on a special flight, the next day he had to fly to Japan, the flights just didn’t work out, he took the opportunity.”

The agenda of Silina’s business trips is cluttered, the most frequent destination is Brussels in Belgium and the countries around the Baltic Sea – both the nearest neighbors and Scandinavia, as well as other countries: Belgium, Spain, Sweden, Lithuania, Estonia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Paris, Poland, UNITED STATES. Among the flights there is one special flight (in October, cost 22,296 euros), and VIP service was used five times.

On the other hand, a uniform practice in the ministries has been a consistent 20% supplement to the per diem of the minister’s business trip. The State Audit Office, when auditing Kariņš’s flights, recognized this as a permitted but undesirable practice if there is no specific justification for it. Some ministries have already ended the practice of this 20 percent supplement to the daily allowance in April, others are thinking about how to stop it.