Meelis Oidsalu joins Praxis in the new year, along with Alari Rammo, who has worked in non-profit sector for some time now.

Oidsalu said: "Estonian state agencies are afraid to make mistakes, and therefore few, late and big mistakes are made."

"Mistakes that are made often, early and that are small should be encouraged. Our government agencies have highly qualified staff, but we are not fully implementing their creative potential. I believe I can be helpful in this regard," he continued.

Oidsalu will lead work concerning public administration at Praxis, spokespersons for the think tank said Wednesday, while Oidsalu himself says he wants to contribute to the spread of best practice, for example in bringing together top public and private sector leaders to design public services.

Oidsalu resigned as defense ministry undersecretary in September, after working in the role for several years, and at the ministry as a whole for over 20 years.

He spoke at the time of tensions between the various organs of state, particularly in their interface with the central Government Office (Riigikantselei), and with State Secretary Taimar Peterkop and other officials, while also denying wrongdoing in authoring a memo which one government office coordinator said had contained classified information, but without being marked as such.

Oidsalu is also something of a culture commentator, who appears quite frequently in the media.

Alari Rammo, will be primarily responsible for financial management at Praxis. His roles until now had included being head of advocacy at the Network of Estonian Nonprofit Organizations.

Praxis is a civil initiative think tank aiming to enrich public debate and create new knowledge and effective solutions to important issues in society, including in the education, health, work and social life, equal opportunities and civil society spheres.

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