At its June meeting, the Political Parties Financing Surveillance Committee (ERJK) discussed media reports that Ratas has published content made by Riigikogu advisers on his social media accounts aimed at promoting him as a candidate in the upcoming election.

"In an interview with Delfi on 11.06.2024, you said that the work of advisors is to deal with political communication in addition to traveling around etc. According to the allegations made in the media, you have, among other things, used the help of advisers employed by the Riigikogu to create and produce personal campaign content, and the committee considers that this may constitute misuse of public funds (prohibited income) and also prohibited donations," wrote ERJK chairman Liisa Oviir in an inquiry sent to Ratas.

"What is prohibited is if such an adviser contributes to the creation and publication of your personal election campaign content," she added.

Oviir said money should be returned to the Riigikogu based on the advisor's salary or the average market price.

In a letter sent to Oviir, Ratas replied that the Isamaa political party paid the bills for his European Parliament elections content. "These costs are reflected in the election report of the political party Isamaa and the company Kontent EST OÜ submitted invoices for the cooperation from March to June 2024," he said.

The Isamaa politician said the main task of the people working in the office is to advise and assist in all issues that arise in the work of the vice-chairman. "Among other things, one-off tasks, technical issues arising from the nature of the job. Tasks range from substantive advice to day-to-day administration," he said.

Oviir asked Ratas if and to what extent the advisers hired by the Riigikogu's office contributed to Ratas's campaign and which channels they used for this.

"I estimate that these hours were 8 hours. I have not paid the office staff for this. The activity was technical (e.g. content creation for social media). The channels were Facebook and Instagram," he replied.

ERR also asked Oviir for a comment on Ratas' answers. "Jüri Ratas explained the situation and made a repayment to the state budget. So for us, this case is over," she said.

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