The Riigikogu heard the annual report of the Chancellor of Justice

Chancellor of Justice Ülle Madise said in her report that, in the past year, the office of the Chancellor of Justice had met a large number of officials and elected representatives who were doing their job exactly as it should be done: with dedication, dignity, and     awareness of their power and responsibility. However, according to her, it must be admitted that the work of officials on the “front line” is becoming increasingly difficult.

“I am talking about the officials with whom you come into direct contact: those who have to issue building permits, environmental permits, go to crime scenes, and so on. We have noticed that, with every major cutback and redundancy – and we have them almost every other year –, their lines get thinner and their work stress increases. At the same time, all kinds of development planning, outcome measurement, and all kinds of replacement activities take up a huge amount of work hours and money,” she noted.

According to Madise, the former are often much more demanding functions requiring much more competence than the functions of the officials burdened with replacement activities on the so-called “higher side” and with higher pay. “And it is precisely what is going on on the ‘front line’ that determines how people feel about our country, our Estonia,” she said.

Madise pointed out that perhaps it was high time to do away with everything in public institutions that was not directly necessary to serve the people. “Indeed, to limit ourselves to clear, comprehensible, and well-thought-out provisions in the laws, honest impact analysis in the explanatory memorandum, and, where possible, do away with metrics, reports, and development plans. The point is that they create neither a sense of justice nor a sense of security,” she said.

The Chancellor of Justice stressed that the task of all officials must be to serve the people and to solve their problems, so that it would be easy to raise children in Estonia and it would be possible to grow old with dignity, to have a job of your liking, to engage in business, to build a home and to manage land and forests. “This is key. Measurements, planning, all the rest is secondary. If you have the money and the time, why not. But I have come to understand – and our work shows this – that there is no money and no time,” Madise said in her report.

The overview by the Chancellor of Justice’s discusses the work of the Chancellor’s office from 1 September last year to 31 August this year, covering a wide range of topics from taxation, banking, surveillance and environmental protection to the rights of children and young people, the situation of disabled people, social welfare, and inspection visits.

During the debate, Anastassia Kovalenko-Kõlvart from the Centre Party Group, Hendrik Johannes Terras from Estonia 200 Parliamentary Group, Eduard Odinets from the Social Democratic Party Group, Maris Lauri from the Reform Party Group and Martin Helme from the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Parliamentary Group took the floor. Jaanus Karilaid took the floor on behalf of Isamaa Parliamentary Group.

A Bill passed the first reading

The Bill on Amendments to the Medicinal Products Act and the Health Services Organisation Act (458 SE), initiated by the Social Affairs Committee, passed the first reading in the Riigikogu. Its aim is to transfer the establishment, management, renewal, and deployment of the national health reserve from the Health Board to regional hospitals with public participation.

The amendment will allow to disperse the location of stocks and to reduce or avoid the cost arising due to expiring of medicines and equipment when they are rotated. Locating the stocks at regional hospitals will also make it easier for them to be deployed, as it is expected that the hospitals that will be holding the stocks under the proposed amendments will also have the highest workload in a crisis. The explanatory memorandum points out that regional hospitals are staffed with specialists with the necessary experience to manage stocks.

Photos (Author: Erik Peinar / Chancellery of the Riigikogu)

Verbatim record of the sitting (in Estonian)

Video recording will be available to watch later on the Riigikogu YouTube channel.

Riigikogu Press Service
Karin Kangro
+372 631 6356, +372 520 0323
karin.kangro@riigikogu.ee
Questions: press@riigikogu.ee

Link uudisele: The Riigikogu heard the annual report of the Chancellor of Justice

Source: Parliament of Estonia