Most large Estonian state agencies have a supervisory board (Nõukogu), as distinct from the management board and its chair.

Kristi Tiivas (pictured) had up to now been supervisory board chair of KredEx and Enterprise Estonia (EAS), two formerly separate institutions now merged, though still operating under their respective names – she has not formally submitted an application for the vacant management board chair post, and cites a confidentiality agreement she has signed in response to media questions on this.

Postimees calls the current situation "messy," noting that the merger, announced a year-and-a-half ago, has yet to be followed by a new, unifying organization name, had not led to the costs savings it was claimed at the time would follow, and still lacks a leader – following the departure of Lauri Lugna in Spring and, now, Tiivas' resignation as supervisory board chair, though Tiivas is known to be a "fan" of the merger.

Moving between management and supervisory boards may generally be accepted in the private sector, but the optics of that happening at a public sector institution are different, the paper argues – citing the case of the process by which former Finance Minister Keit Pentus-Rosimannus last year became Estonia's representative at the European Court of Auditors as a parallel.

Avoiding the problem by attracting private sector top managers can also prove problematic in that the latter are accustomed to commanding higher salaries than their public sector equivalents, while at the same time may not find appealing the kind of public scrutiny and political pressures which leading public sector figures can be subject to.

The original Postimees piece (in Estonian) is here.

KredEx is a state loans agency which saw much use during the Covid pandemic; Enterprise Estonia mostly promotes innovation, trade, foreign investment and the e-state.

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