Transparency International’s Estonian chairman Erkka Jaakkola said that Toobal’s appointment sounded “like a bad joke”. In his opinion, the Center Party’s decision undermined the committee’s integrity.

“The Center Party could try to find a personality to join the committee whose authority isn’t nullified by a criminal sentence,” Jaakkola said, and added that in the light of the news, qualifying requirements should be considered for its members.

The political party funding supervision committee consists of appointees of the Chancellor of Justice, the National Auditor, the National Electoral Committee, and one representative each of the political parties in the Riigikogu. The current committee’s term ends at the end of April this year.

The Center Party’s representative on the committee already has the interesting task to supervise his own party, as it is currently under investigation for having accepted illegal political donations.

With Toobal, a former Center MP takes over who had to leave parliament over a criminal case in the course of which he was found guilty both of unauthorized surveillance and of having falsified documents in his role as a public official.

MP Jaanus Karilaid (Center) said that Toobal was the right choice because he knew the parties’ financial matters inside out. Karilaid also added that Toobal had apologized and atoned for his sins, that he had left the Riigikogu, and that he had a strong mandate as the Center Party’s secretary general.