Discussions on candidates for Bank of Latvia governor started too late - Rinkevics

RIGA - Discussions on candidates for the Bank of Latvia governor started too late, President Edgars Rinkevics said in an interview with Delfi portal.

Candidates for the post of the Bank of Latvia governor need to obtain a security clearance, or at the very least there has to be information that they will be issued a security clearance. The state security authorities cannot be issued in a week, the vetting process is not that simple, said Rinkevics.

Everybody knew when the term of office of the current Bank of Latvia governor would end. "Blaming it on the budget... Five years ago Saeima also had to vote on a budget, and yet they also appointed the governor of the Bank of Latvia five years ago," said Rinkevics.

He believes that the process of nominating candidates for the post of the Bank of Latvia governor started too late. The president already in September met with heads of Saeima groups of both coalition and opposition parties to ask how they viewed the process. The president himself started the process of selecting candidates for the chief of defense in mid-July and only selected the best candidate in November as it was not such a simple, quick process, said Rinkevics.

He also believes that the auditor general, the governor of the Bank of Latvia, the chief of defense, the head of the Constitutional Protection Bureau and judges should receive more than just the coalition's support.

All in all, the process of selecting candidates for the Bank of Latvia governors created a bad impression, said Rinkevics.

Furthermore, the coalition parties' attitude toward the candidates for the Bank of Latvia governor, including the current Governor Martins Kazaks, also did not leave a good impression, said the president.

As reported, Saeima on Thursday voted on the next Bank of Latvia governor, but two coalition parties, New Unity and the Union of Greens and Farmers, withdrew their candidates - Kazaks and Reinis Berzins, chairman of the board of the Development Finance Institution Altum (Altum) - to agree on a single candidate next year.

Kazaks is due to stand down on December 21.