Postimees Digest, Friday, April 5
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Head of puppet theater resigns.
The council of the Estonian Puppet Theater (NUKU) has released from office recent director of the theater Meelis Pai following his resignation. Pai said that he hopes his withdrawal will end the conflict between the culture ministry and the theater, but added that he still does not understand the reason for the strife.
Chairman of the council Kalju Komissarov said that the council will start looking for a new head for the theater and that another audit is in order to make sure there are no more skeletons in the theater's closets. Komissarov also said he agrees with the ministry's criticism concerning the theater's financial affairs and its inconsistency in paying remunerations and that he aims to fix the latter problem in the near future. Komissarov recently replaced former chairman Jaan Puusaag.
Tallinn to sell over one hundred apartments.
Tallinn city council decided yesterday to sell 163 apartments belonging to the city for what the opposition described as less than the market price. The city will be selling the apartments directly to their current tenants at a fixed price. The opposition suspects foul play, however, as it believes the city government is selling the apartments for less than they're worth on the market and that third parties might use tenants as agents to buy apartments cheaply so they can then sell them on with a profit. The opposition's speculations are based on examples from the past as apartments the city has sold have reappeared on the market the very next day for double the price.
Amendment to speed up expiry of punishments.
The government has approved and sent to the Riigikogu a bill to change the principles of expiry of punishments so that new punishments no longer automatically postpone the expiry of previous ones. Minister of Justice Hanno Pevkur said the amendment touches 250,000 people. According to the new law, every punishment has its own expiry date that no longer depends on other offenses.
Listing state-owned companies would ensure better management.
CFO of Eesti Energia Margus Kaasik says in an interview that listing major state-owned companies would result in better quality of management in addition to opportunities to involve more capital from the market. Kaasik adds that Eesti Energia's value currently stands at around 1 billion euros and that it should be possible for the management to double it in five years.