The Ministry of the Interior (IeM) has prepared a draft order on the announcement of an open competition for the position of the head of the Financial Intelligence Service (FID), promising a monthly salary of 8,400 euros before taxes.
Content will continue after the ad
Advertising
The said draft order has yet to be reviewed by the Cabinet of Ministers and only then will it be announced.
FID has been working without an elected head since June 1 last year. The institution is headed by Acting Head Toms Platacis.
Previously, FID was headed by Ilze Znotiņa, who took office on June 1, 2018. Nearing the end of her mandate, the government decided to announce an open competition for the position of head of the institution, in which Znotiņa won. On May 31 last year, the government supported her reconfirmation, but the final word had to be given to the Saeima, which rejected Znotina’s candidacy on June 16.
Well, the government plans to decide on the announcement of a competition for the position of head of the FID. According to IeM, the head of the institution can be a person who has accumulated relevant work experience and experience in a managerial position.
The selection announcement is intended to stipulate that the applicant must meet the requirements to receive a special permit for access to state secrets, and the applicant must not participate in the activities of political parties or their associations. The applicant must have an impeccable reputation.
Also, the applicant must have a higher professional or academic education and a qualification as a lawyer or economist or a qualification in financial management.
The applicant must have at least three years of experience as a head of an organization or in another managerial position, as well as an understanding of the field of money laundering and terrorist financing prevention. At the same time, the regulation will require the applicant to have knowledge of two foreign languages, one of which must be English, because these language skills are essential in performing the duties of the position.
The applicant is promised responsible and complex work, which is characterized by a large scale, a large amount of work and independent decision-making. Also, the head of FID has the opportunity to represent Latvia at the international level.
The FID manager’s monthly salary is promised in the amount of 8,400 euros before taxes, as well as social guarantees, health insurance, and a motivating bonus system according to the achieved work results.
The selection of applicants for the post of head of the FID will be carried out by a commission headed by the Director of the State Chancellery, while the commission is planned to include the Prosecutor General or his delegated representative, the Minister of Internal Affairs or his delegated representative, the Minister of Finance or his delegated representative, the Director of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the Chief of the State Security Service. No more than three delegated representatives of the Financial Sector Development Council will be able to participate in the selection of applicants with advisory rights.
It is planned that the selection of candidates for the post of FID will take place in three rounds. In the first round, the commission will evaluate the applicants’ compliance with the established requirements. In the second round, the applicants will explain to the tender commission their motivation for taking up this position, answer the questions asked by the commission and present their vision of FID’s priorities and development. On the other hand, in the third round of the competition, applicants’ management competencies were tested: change management, decision-making, strategic vision, team management, achieving results. The assessment of management competencies will be carried out by two independent personnel selection experts engaged by the State Chancellery.
FID is an independent, leading institution under the supervision of the Cabinet of Ministers in the prevention of money laundering, and its goal is to prevent the possibility of using the Latvian financial system for money laundering and terrorism and proliferation financing.
The basic task of the FID is to collect and analyze financial data, received reports on suspicious transactions, in order to transfer the obtained information to Latvian law enforcement authorities for the investigation of cases of money laundering, terrorism and proliferation financing.
The activity of FID is regulated by the Law on the Prevention of Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism and Proliferation, as well as other national regulations, European directives and international standards.