Police chief says bonuses for officers justified

  • 2005-09-04
RIGA - The head of the State Police defended the bonuses paid to police commanders, saying the extra funds went toward compensating for additional work and came from money saved from vacant jobs.



Police chief Janis Zascirinskis said the premiums were paid in accordance to existing regulations. What's more, most of the bonuses were paid to mid-level officers and not top commanders, he said.



From January to July some 13.5 million lats were paid as wages and 703,000 lats as bonuses. Some 130,000 lats were distributed to police officers involved in providing security for the visit of U.S. President George W. Bush in May, police officials told reporters on Wednesday.



Interior Minister Eriks Jekabsons said that, although the wages are governed by the government regulations, he was surprised that "applying the system individually, it could be distorted with premium wages and additional payments," the Baltic News Service reported.