Postimees Digest, Wednesday, February 20

Photo: Peeter Langovits

Postimees

Wanted: superleader (editorial)

Police and Border Guard Board (PBGB)is looking for director general tasked with guaranteeing citizens’ daily security in all respects. We require experience at leading large organisations or long-term leadership experience in internal security. We offer stressful work 24/7, 365 days a year, constant media atention, public spotlight and salary provided by law (i.e. not necessarily motivating).

Even though PBGB’s new head is being sought by a commission, the responsibility also clearly falls on Minister of the Interior Ken-Marti Vaher, to keep the main thing the main thing, namely: to find a competent person. Not to mention the risks related to final decision. PBGB chief search cannot drag on too long. For, at some point, it would cease to be merely the headache of a headless organisation, evolving into infirmity of a vital part of the state.

Vaher: I am not handpicking my team

Minister of Internal Affairs Ken-Marti Vaher says in two separate interviews that the inspection board's decision to abrogate the competition to find a new head for the Police and Border Guard Board (PPA) and nominate a candidate directly does not equal a vote of no confidence in recent candidates and that he is not planning to handpick his team.

Vaher says that while it would have been good to find a suitable head for the agency through the competition, he trusts the inspection board in its decision. The minister also says that candidates who made it to the second round of the competition are all capable internal security officials who will remain in their current positions. Vaher refused to speculate on who might end up at the helm of Estonia's largest state agency.

Gazprom wants regional LNG terminal to be built in Finland

Estonia's Eesti Gaas and the Finnish Gasum have agreed that the best location for a regional liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal is Inkoo on the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland. Both gas companies have the Russian energy giant Gazprom as a major shareholder, the paper observes.

Talks over the location of the regional LNG terminal for Finland and the Baltic states have reached the decisive phase. With funds set apart for energy projects in the European Union's new multiannual budget, the location has to suit the European Commission as well.

Traffic casualties sharply down

Compared to last year’s fatal traffic accidents – with 16 people killed by middle of February – and 10 the year before, 2013 has started strikingly better: as of February 18^th, three pedestrians have lost their lives in traffic, all of them in Tallinn.

Tallinn Secondary Science School to open private basic school

This fall, a private basic school will be opened by Tallinn Secondary Science School (Tallinna Reaalkool). Starting in March, students – unlucky at municipal school entry tests – may be enrolled for grades 1 to 7 with emphasis on science.

The new school will be called Reaali Põhikool, located at former Police house at Pärnu road. The building will hold 18 classes i.e. 1^st to 9^th grades with two parallel classes each. By beginning of March, the new school’s owners hope to be handed education licence by Ministry of Education and Research, to start registering students with all confidence. Reaali Põhikool would be 16^th private school in Tallinn. All in all, Estonia has 37 private schools.