RIGA - During a meeting with the Latvian Association of Local and Regional Governments Chairman Gints Kaminskis on Monday, President Edgars Rinkevics insisted that local governments' chairpersons had to obtain security clearance to effectively perform their duties, as the president's advisor Martins Dregeris told LETA.
The two officials discussed the legal requirement that local governments' chairpersons and deputy chairpersons need to obtain security clearances, as well as measures to improve municipal civil defense plans and their practical implementation.
As reported, the requirement for municipal executive directors and their deputies to obtain clearances for access to state secrets was proposed by Rinkevics and came into force on June 1, 2024. "In the new circumstances, municipalities have many tasks, the successful execution of which depends directly on effective cooperation of municipalities with government authorities, including national security institutions, in particular in various training scenarios in which sensitive information and information containing state secrets is inevitably used," explained the president.
Rinkevics believes that full and effective performance of municipal functions, both in everyday life and in the event of a crisis, is essentially impossible if municipal officials do not have the right, and therefore the opportunity, to access classified information.
"The amendments adopted by Saeima express the unambiguous will of the legislator: chairpersons and deputy chairpersons of local governments are obliged to obtain security clearance for access to state secrets," said Rinkevics.
During the meeting, Rinkevics and Kaminskis also discussed local governments' budgets and finances, internal and external security, education and social issues, as well as the demographic situation and solutions to reduce bureaucracy in local governments.
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