FinMin nominates candidate for Latvia's next tax chief
Xinhua, August 3, 2016 Adjust font size:
Inga Kolegova, Latvia's current head of the State Environmental Service, has been officially nominated to take the helm of the State Revenue Service, Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis said Tuesday.
Kolegova, a candidate handpicked and nominated for the vacant position by Finance Minister Dana Reizniece-Ozola, has already voiced her readiness to become Latvia's next tax chief.
Following a meeting of the government coalition, the prime minister said that the ministers will probably decide on Kolegova's appointment at a Cabinet meeting next Tuesday.
Kucinskis told the press that in the meantime, Kolegova will meet with representatives of coalition parties to present her perspective on the revenue service's work and answer politicians' questions.
The prime minister's centrist Greens and Farmers Union is for the time being the only coalition partner to have endorsed Kolegova's candidacy. The center-right Unity and right-wing National Alliance will decide on their position after interviews with Kolegova, the parties' representatives said.
Unity representative Evards Smiltens said Kolegova is a relatively unknown candidate and it is therefore necessary to obtain more information about her vision of the revenue service's future work and media reports about her own involvement in business deals.
Kolegova has already met with several entrepreneurs' organizations, but they too refrained from expressing clear support for her candidacy.
After the State Revenue Service's previous director-general Inara Petersone stood down at the end of June, a public tender was held to fill the vacant position, but none of the candidates who applied in the competition was found to be suitable.
It was then decided to look for a candidate among Latvia's top-ranked public servants without organizing a new tender. Apart from Kolegova, the job was also offered to Treasury head Kaspars Abolins and Baiba Vitolina, the head of the Consumer Rights Protection Center, but they refused to run for the position. Endit