Transparency and the President's Salary II


One year and three weeks ago I wrote in this paper and under the very same heading about the reasons why I consider it natural to disclose my income to the public. For the readers it would be inconvenient to delve in old papers, so I remind you: in 1997 Helle (who works for free) and I had a total income of EEK 256, 775 and 14 cents. Last year (in 1998) our income was EEK 239,100.00. The journalist Krister Kivi was right to remark that "even with the President's salary, it is impossible in Estonia to move into a middle-class house." (Eesti Ekspress 04.09.1998). I do not consider this degrading in any way. Deciding to put up the candidacy for my present post in 1992, I exchanged the thrice as large income of an Ambassador for the greater responsibilities of the President, but I knew my reasons for doing so. There are values in the world that have more weight than market laws. The good name of the Republic of Estonia and the Estonian citizen's confidence in our state are among the highest of such values.

To restore the confidence is one of our main tasks. The scarce participation in the recent elections proved that. A disappointed customer who has lost confidence in his bank can turn to another bank, but what can a citizen do? He can of course choose another party, a different Riigikogu, another Government; but there is only one Estonia in the world. If we sum up all the complex arguments of the state law, we reach the simple truth: it is our confidence that keeps Estonia together.

There is never too much confidence, especially in the times of the passionate economic reforms. Our folklore has come up with a pair of words erastamine and ärastamine (the first word meaning privatisation and the second removal, especially under shady circumstances) for the economic reforms. This is the people's judgement of the contradictions of our time. This pair of words brings out the contradiction between the building of a state and the suspicious transactions, tax fraud, holding on to the privileges of the Soviet times, which inspire distrust and have already inspired the birth of a new anti-landlord folklore, only now our own state has the position of the landlord. Therefore, the danger obviously lies in the hazy borderline between privatisation and "removal", in the questions to which the citizens have no answers. And it is easy to manipulate this distrust to the conclusion that the Estonians are unable to restore the rule of law.

I am glad that my article a year ago helped to fortify the Anti-Corruption Act. This year, higher officials sent a much more detailed list of their declaration of economic interests to the Anti-Corruption Committee of the Riigikogu. It is true that as yet the requirement for the publication of declarations does not concern the managers of state-owned companies. According to Clause 3 of Section 8 of the Estonian Wages Act: "The employer has no right to disclose the data about the wages without the consent of the employee." This has raised several questions. In a mature society the wages are first and foremost the indicator of a person's or a company's efficiency, which any company should be interested to make public. Therefore, I support the position of the Minister of Justice Märt Rask who said: "The salaries of the managers of the state-owned companies should be public knowledge". And as the employer of the Estonian President is the Republic of Estonia, I hereby rely on the written law and support the idea of the Minister of Justice by setting a personal example. Trust starts with transparency and with the Head of State. Trust should always be mutual.

So, to continue the article published on April 24, 1998:

The taxable income of myself and Helle (who works for free) was 318 892 EEK and 82 cents in 1998. This includes my wages, 21,000 EEK a month, and the non-taxable representational costs, 20% of the salary, royalties of the plays, interest from a savings account and income from the sale of a part of an apartment inherited from my parents. All in all, I have paid the total of 79, 792 EEK of income tax for 1998.

I own a real estate and a house under construction at Uus-Meremaa in the Viimsi municipality, for which I have concluded a housing loan agreement of one million EEK, as well as a part of an illegally alienated house, our last home before the great deportation of 1941, and a family house built from 1965 to 19779, where my son lives with his family. Of my salaries, I have managed to save 220,000 EEK in the bank in 1992-1999. I have no shares, I am not a member of any supervisory board, and am in good health as you can see. After resigning from my present post on October 6 2001 I will accept a job in order to pay the housing loan back to the bank. All this and much more can be read on my homepage www.president.ee . I would also like to take this opportunity to thank everybody, everybody, everybody for the congratulations on my birthday and the cheerful participation in the tree-planting bee in Uus-Meremaa!

Yours


Lennart Meri

In Kadriorg, on May 19, 1999

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