Eesti Ekspress reported on Wednesday (link in Estonian) that both Boroditš and Popel have attended several training events on the City of Tallinn's dime, including the city paying for their plane tickets, hotels and per diems.

While not one of these trips has been relevant to Tallinn's public transport, Boroditš has nonetheless allowed for these bills — totaling €33,000-35,000 over two years — to be paid for out of TLT's budget, the paper said.

According to a principal hitherto followed in Tallinn city government, one's training-related expenses should not exceed more than one month's salary per year.

Boroditš, however, convinced former employer Kalle Klandorf to write into his employment contract that there would be no cap on expenditures from the TLT budget related to his training.

Klandorf is now saying that while no upper limit was included in Boroditš' employment contract, this should nonetheless not be abused. "It seems to me as though [these costs] are clearly too much for training," he said.

Last year, TLT footed a total of €25,000 in training- and education-related bills for Boroditš and Popel; another some €25,000 total in similar expenses are planned for this year.

Boroditš himself said that these trainings are necessary in order to better and more innovatively manage TLT, and added that the board members' education-related expenses are well covered by the company's own revenue, which has grown under new management.

This Monday, however, Tallinn city government announced that Deputy Mayor Andrei Novikov (Center), who is responsible for TLT's area of activity, had canceled all of Boroditš planned trips as well as the agreement that the company would cover his training-related expenses. The city also requested that Boroditš do the same regarding Popel's paid studies at Estonian Business School (EBS) in Tallinn.

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