On August 11, the Cabinet of Ministers supported the approval of Jānis Ābele, who previously worked at the Central Finance and Contracts Agency (CFLA) and the Ministry of Economics (MoE), as the head of the State Inspectorate for the Protection of Children’s Rights (VBTAI).
At the meeting, the Minister of Welfare Ramona Petraviča (KPV LV) pointed out that of all the candidates, Ābele was the most suitable for the said position. “Ābele is a person with a strategic vision, purposeful, with change management thinking, he also has a lot of ideas and initiatives,” said the Minister. It is his experience, attitude and managerial qualities that are what the inspectorate needs at the moment, Petraviča said.
At the meeting, Ābele noted that she had applied for a position to make significant changes. “I applied for the competition with the motivation to implement development-oriented changes in this position,” said Ābele.
According to him, the newly appointed head of VBTAI does not simply want to hold this position, but “really sees the preconditions using his managerial experience and education, experience of change management and vision to make changes, the main preconditions of which are administrative-territorial reform”.
Ābele was selected as the most suitable for this position in a competition organized by the State Chancellery.
He already met with the Minister of Welfare in the second half of July and gained her support, but a decision by the Cabinet of Ministers is required to take office.
The Minister of Welfare has previously stated that Abele is a person who sees for himself that he can contribute to the improvement of the system of protection of children’s rights. The Minister stated that today she had talked to the new head of VBTAI that “only the carcass is left from the inspection, which must be demolished and the house rebuilt”.
“He is ready to do that, and I hope he will be in this position for a longer period of time,” Petraviča said. The Minister said that she had participated in the candidate selection committee herself and had the opportunity to get acquainted with both Ābele’s presentation and her vision for the development of VBTAI.
Prior to participating in the competition, Ābele worked with information technology (IT) projects co-financed by the EU Structural Funds. Ābele has also been the head of administration at the Ministry of Economics.
From 2016 to June 2019, the winner of the tender was CFLA, where he headed the Traffic Infrastructure Projects Division of the Infrastructure Development Department for a year and a half, then the Environment and Energy Efficiency Department, while in 2019 Ābele became the Deputy Director for EU Funds .
During this period, in addition to his job responsibilities, the winner of the competition also worked in the field of IT and developed an educational computer game. Syllablesthat develops literacy in children.
Previously, Ābele worked in the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development, where from 2013 to 2014 he was a senior expert in the Financial Management Division of the Investment Monitoring Department, but later he headed this division for two years. Prior to that, Ābele worked in the European Social Funds Supervision Division of the Ministry of Finance.
Ābele holds a professional master’s degree in management from Riga Stradiņš University. The potential head of VBTAI has an excellent command of English and a good command of German.
The employment relationship with the former head of VBTAI Marianna Drejs was terminated on February 28 on the basis of mutual agreement. Dreja has been unable to work since October 14, 2019. During her absence, Valentina Gorbunova, Director of the Department of Orphanages and Foster Families of VBTAI, was entrusted with the duties of the head of the Inspectorate.
At the beginning of October last year, it became known that some of the employees of the institution are dissatisfied with the methods of Dray administration. After the Minister of Welfare said at the time, visiting the inspection and talking to the employees, the Minister concluded that many of them were dissatisfied with the head of the institution and therefore were in the mood to leave their jobs if nothing changed.
Although Petraviča emphasized at that time that in such a situation he was skeptical about Dreja’s possibilities to continue working as the head of VBTAI, the Minister also noted that Labor law protects the rights of the worker, so “the mere fact that employees are dissatisfied cannot be a ground for dismissal, as there is then a possibility of litigation”.
The government approved the position of the head of the Drain Inspectorate in February 2018. Prior to that, she held various positions in the State Employment Agency for a long time.
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