BNN summary of the week: Disciplinary action at Ministry of the Interior. In search of NATO secretary general. Teachers at risk – bnn-news.com

Active talks about compulsory Covid-19 vaccination continued in Latvia this week. Many opposed this idea. Some suggested paying vaccinated people EUR 300 to motivate people.

Meanwhile, Minister of Education and Science Anita Muiniece estimates that up to 1 000 teachers may leave the education system because of Covid-19 vaccination.

This week also came along with the decision by Minister of the Interior Marija Golubeva commenced disciplinary action against the chief of the ministrys Information Centre Lga Lapia for violations committed in a procurement procedure.

NATO, meanwhile, is looking for a new secretary general. Among the candidates could be the two strong women from Latvias neighbouring countries Kersti Kaljulaid and Dalia Grybauskait.

BNN gives you a summery of the most relevant events of the past week in the following topics: Elections; Education System; Fraudsters; Disciplinary Action; Unemployment; NATO; Restrictions in Estonia.

Photo: Evija Trifanova/LETA

On Thursday, 22 July, political party Harmony was the first to submit and register its list of candidates in Rezekne for the upcoming municipal elections, as confirmed by the chairman of the local Central Election Commission Ilona Turka.

She said Harmonys submitted list with 21 deputies was accepted. Currently it is unknown when other political parties could submit their candidate lists. Varaklani Central Election Commission has yet to receive any candidate list, said the head of the local office Aija ucka.

As it is known, submission of candidate lists for 11 September municipal elections in Varaklani and Rezekne will continue until 28 July.

Photo: Pexels

In the next academic year, when it is planned to request teachers to have Covid-19 vaccination certificates on them to work, we might see about 1 000 teachers leave the education system, said Latvian Minister of Education Anita Muiniece, voicing her concerns in an interview to TV3.

According to data from the Ministry of Education and Science, in 2020/2021 academic year there were about 56 000 teachers in Latvia. Most of them near 30 000 were teachers in general and special education, 12 000 were kindergarten teachers, and 5 600 university teachers.

Muiniece believes the Saeima will make up its mind in August and will support the governments position on compulsory Covid-19 vaccination certificate requirement for teachers. This means some of the teachers may leave the education system.

Photo: Unsplash

Last week, Latvian State Police received information about EUR 203 000 having been defrauded from residents. The biggest amount EUR 20 000 was defrauded from a woman in Ogre. The biggest amount defrauded from residents in Riga was EUR 18 000 and the biggest amount in Latgale EUR 8 500, police report.

Fraudsters often pretend to be workers of Latvian banks and other financial specialists. They present misleading information to residents in an attempt to gain access to their bank accounts.

Latvian Minister of the Interior Marija Golubeva. Photo: Paula urkste/LETA

Latvian Minister of the Interior Marija Golubeva has initiated disciplinary action against the chief of the ministrys Information Centre Lga Lapia for major violations committed in procurements, as reported by the ministry.

The Ministry of the Interior has completed Golubevas initiated disciplinary inspection in relation to two procurement procedures organized by the Information Centre: procurement of and installation of video cameras and development of secure technologies and solutions.

The ministry notes that the inspection revealed multiple violations. Following the report of findings from the inspection, the minister decided to ask the Procurement Monitoring Bureau to commence an administrative violation case based on possible violations of sections 84 and 86 of the Public Procurement Law.

Photo: Elizabete Meule

In June 2021 actual unemployment rate comprised 7.8 %, which is 0.1 percentage points less than in May.

The unemployment rate for females increased by 0.1 percentage points to 7.4 % in June, but for males it remained unchanged at 8.3 %. Unemployment rate registered by the State Employment Agency (SEA) accounted for 7.4 % which is 0.2 percentage points less than in May. Unemployment rate decrease may be observed when comparing the data to the June of the previous year of 0.8 percentage points in actual unemployment rate and 1.2 percentage points in registered unemployment rate, according to data from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) conducted by the Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia (CSB).

Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid and Lithuanian Dalia Grybauskait. Photo: REUTERS/SCANPIX

As the NATO military alliance plans to replace its Secretary-General in 2022, news portal Politico.eu reports of unofficial criteria of selection, which point to the chances of former Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskait and current Estonian leader Kersti Kaljulaid.

Former pacifist Prime Minister of Norway, Jens Stoltenberg, has held the top civilian post in the military organisation since 2014. The 30 allied countries have now extended his duties until September 2022, leaving little more than a year to install a replacement. At the Brussels headquarters, formal discussions have just begun, and Stoltenbergs successor is expected to be introduced at a NATO leaders summit in Madrid in spring or early summer 2022.

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas. Photo: Postimees Grupp/EestiMeedia/SCANPIX Baltics

With new Covid-19 cases rising in Estonia again, the government has this week discussed possible new restrictions to limit the spread of the dangerous disease. This time, only restrictions to unvaccinated people are under discussion, Estonian public broadcaster ERR reports.

The Estonian government considered possible directions of action in a sitting on Thursday, July 23. Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas stated in a Facebook post: Since everyone in Estonia has the opportunity to get vaccinated, as long as any new strains are covered by vaccines, we will not generally close down society.

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BNN summary of the week: Disciplinary action at Ministry of the Interior. In search of NATO secretary general. Teachers at risk - bnn-news.com