Three of the parties are required to pay nearly €10,000 each to SALK as a result, while Center must pay around half that sum.

Minutes from a Political Parties Financing Surveillance Committee (ERJK) meeting held on June 20 reveal that SALK provided work for the three parties ahead of the March 2023 Riigikogu election, work – since it was done pro bono – which may constitute a prohibited donation.

SALK allegedly provided free consulting, and conducted surveys and gave free access to the data from these surveys to Reform Party, Eesti 200, SDE, and Center, the four major, socially liberal parties contesting the election.

Three of the parties, Reform, Eesti 200 and SDE, subsequently entered office after the election result.

The ERJK had approached SALK's director, Tarmo Jüristo (pictured), for an estimate of the costs associated with the surveys, and Jüristo duly provided a detailed breakdown, but excluding labor costs.

The committee decided that the labor costs per employee, based on SALK's 2022 annual report, should be added to the submitted expenses, to price the services rendered accurately.

ERR has calculated the sums due to the three coalition parties at around €9,600 each, plus €4,800 payable by Center.

This is on the basis of the three coalition parties paying two thirds of the total per SALK employee – which comes to €33,451.

SALK has three staff on payroll and, according to its 2022 annual report, the labor costs for these three staffers totaled €100,354, comprising €75,571 in salaries, €24,196 in social tax, and €587 in unemployment insurance.

Since some of the survey data was also publicly available, the committee considered whether to split the service cost equally between the four parties and the public, or to divide it at an 80/20 ratio in favor of the parties.

The decision was made to indeed: (1) divide the total service cost between the parties and the public at a ratio of 80:20 and (2) distribute the resulting service cost between the parties such that the Reform Party, Estonia 200, and SDE each receive one portion, while the Centre Party receives half a portion.

This means that the Reform Party, Eesti 200, and SDE each cover two-sevenths of the 80 percent service cost, while Center covers one seventh.

The ERJK minutes state that the decision was supported by six committee members and opposed by three, initialed K.T., V.L., and I.S. These would be ERJK chair Kaarel Tarand, Väino Linde (Reform's committee representative) and Imre Sams (Center's representative).

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