Estonia's Prime Minister Andrus Ansip and Minister of Economic Affairs and Communications Juhan Parts said on Thursday it was regrettable that the names of candidates for the position of director general of the Police and Border Guard Board became public which they said could have an adverse effect on similar future competitions.
Ansip said at the government's press conference that in his view such competitions to fill top positions ought not to be held too publicly.
"The way I see it, certain situations call for discretion. What disclosure of names of persons participating in competitions may lead to is that those persons simply won't want to take part in future competitions. The public takes a disparaging attitude and if you don't win you're regarded as a loser. I personally don't regard them as losers," the prime minister and leader of the ruling Reform Party said.
The head of the government is of the opinion that the names of the candidates under consideration in the selection committee should not have become public. Ansip said he does not wish people to get the impression that the candidates who were not chosen were in some way unsuitable.
"I have a very high regard for those three persons and the opinion of a selection committee makes those persons neither better nor worse. To my mind the three are capable persons who are certain to advance on the career ladder. Had the choice been mine to make, I would have picked one of them and I'm convinced that he would have made a very capable director general of the Police and Border Guard Board," the prime minister stated.
By law the director general of the Police and Border Guard Board is appointed to office by the government on the proposal of the minister of interior after hearing the position of the parliamentary Legal Affairs Committee.
The minister of economy, Juhan Parts from the junior coalition partner Pro Patria and Res Publica Union (IRL), said that in the purview of his ministry public appointment competitions are held constantly and in order to preserve the credibility of such competitions candidates' names have to be withheld from the public.
"That's highly sensitive information. A person is vying for a position but there's no guarantee that somebody else is not deemed to be better for various reasons. The regrettable fact about the Police and Border Guard Board chief competition is that it all came out. If I disclosed all names participating in competitions in the area of governance of the Ministry of Economy nobody would apply the next time around," Parts said.
After completing the evaluation rounds of the public competition, the commission evaluating candidates for the top job of the Police and Border Guard Board decided on Monday not to name a candidate for the job and to continue looking for a candidate by means of executive search.
The competition attracted six applications. Earlier this month the evaluation panel shortlisted three candidates for the job.
The media named the three as Erkki Koort, deputy secretary general for internal security of the Interior Ministry; Tarmo Miilits, the Police and Border Guard Board's deputy director general for public order police; and Tonu Hunt, deputy director general for border guard.
The evaluation panel that examined candidates for the board's top job consisted of Interior Ministry's secretary general Leif Kalev, head of the State Chancellery Heiki Loot, deputy secretary general of the Interior Ministry for rescue policy Hannes Kont, head of the ministry's personnel policy department Aivi Sirp, and Chief Prosecutor Norman Aas.
Incumbent Raivo Kuut tendered his resignation in November in the wake of a scandal over speeding fines issued by officers of the East Prefecture based on readings from an uncalibrated speed measuring device and subsequent cover-up of the case. He leaves at the end of this month.