No more secret salaries, perks for Estonia's officials

May 11, 2000

The Center Party-sponsored amendment to the law on wages and salaries was passed with 78 votes for, none against and no abstentions.

According to the amendment, employers are not allowed to release data about an employee's pay and terms of pay without his or her consent.

The ban does not apply to senior officials and in cases where the information is sought by a court, prosecutor's office, pre-trial investigation institution, or the tax authority and, with regard to state enterprises, the state auditor's office, as well as other cases provided for by law.

The procedure and conditions of publishing the data will be established by the Finance Minister. The law is effective July 1.

Members of the parliamentary Center faction, who initiated the amendment, said the arrival of a period of free circulation of information is being blocked by all talk and no action.

They also observed that scandals over waste of money and cases of concealment of things that don't merit it keep following one another and shocking the public here.

The Centrists recalled employment contracts of former top executives of state-owned enterprises whose secret clauses concerned several advantages not subject to the Estonian legal system and other benefits whose payment was legally questionable.

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