Mikk Marran, whose new role piqued interest when it was first announced last month, in part due to its seemingly different nature and the fact that he was ending his second, five-year term with the Foreign Intelligence Service little more two years in, will also get a performance-related bonus, RMK board member Randel Länts told portal Delfi (link in Estonian).

By comparison, the head of state, the prime minister and the Riigikogu speaker take in a little under €7,500 per month in their roles, while Marran's new wage is 6.5 times national average for gross monthly earnings.

Marran's appointment to the State Forest Management Center's (RMK) top post resulted in an opinion piece by a former defense ministry deputy secretary-general, Meelis Oidsalu, which appeared on ERR's site and which claimed that while Marran was in office, various luxuries including a sizeable skylight, were put on the public tab, and that top-level state agency posts were doled out among a closed cabal of personalities, with little to no scope for outsiders to break in.

Oidsalu has since softened his stance somewhat.

Additionally, a source told ERR that a Foreign Intelligence Service employee had been messaging staff requesting that, if they so wished, they place a pro-Marran post on their Facebook "wall".

Marran starts his job as RMK director on November 1.

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