ERJK investigating how political parties paid for institute's surveys
The Political Party Funding Supervision Committee (ERJK) is looking into whether Isamaa could have received an illicit donation from the Institute for Societal Studies, and whether EKRE and SDE used MPs' expenses to pay for studies that benefited the parties.
Oviir said that at Thursday's meeting, the committee discussed an article published by the newspaper Äripäev, which reported that for several years the Institute for Societal Studies has been plagued by doubts as to whether its benefactor Parvel Pruunsild, a businessman and Isamaa member, collects and distributes valuable research results secretly and for free to his political party.
Pruunsild is one of the institute's biggest donors. Isamaa's top members claim they have not commissioned studies or paid for them.
"In this article, there are some points of interest and some controversial ones," Oviir told ERR.
"We are simply sending clarifying follow-up inquiries to Isamaa in this regard. It has been claimed that Isamaa has received some kind of research and they have based their campaign on that. We asked whether this was true and whether they had paid for it," said Oviir.
The ERJK is also looking into former EKRE member Jaak Valge who allegedly commissioned a survey from the institute on marriage equality and EKRE's reputation.
"Jaak Valge said he has commissioned studies for four years and has one invoice per one study. We will make a follow-up inquiry in this respect," Oviir said.
Additionally, SDE's Tanel Kiik also commissioned a study but put it on the party's Riigikogu faction expenses, which may have broken the rules as this money comes from the state budget, Oviir said.
"The point is that Jaak Valge commissioned his own study on marriage equality and with Varro Vooglaid's expenses allowances to get the necessary information. What some members of the Commission saw as a problem was this wording. Tanel Kiik said that the party (SDE) had commissioned it, but it was paid for with the expenses allowances of the members of the Riigikogu, meaning that what the party needed came from the state budget. It may raise the issue of legal person donations (which are prohibited – ed.) " said Oviir.
"Once we get the answers, then we can look further to see if there is any reason to investigate or do anything further," she added.
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Editor: Aleksander Krjukov, Helen Wright
