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LV Open letter to the Minister of Agriculture regarding the change in management of the Rural Support Service
Over the past ten years, since the Rural Support Service (RSS) has been headed by Anna Vītola-Helviga, the RSS has transformed from a repressive institution into a consultative, modern, and cooperative institution, unlike many other state institutions. The RSS has excellently ensured the simple and transparent implementation of legislation prepared by the Ministry of Agriculture, which is regularly controlled and audited by EU supervisory institutions. The RSS is one of the few Latvian institutions that is a step ahead of the institutions of other European Union member states. Foreign partners learn from the RSS and adopt the best examples of administration.
Latvia's largest non-governmental organizations of farmers and fishermen are confused about the decision of the Minister of Agriculture Kaspars Gerhards not to extend the employment contract with the Director of the Rural Support Service, Anna Vītola-Helviga, and are calling for an explanation of the situation.
-One of the reasons for not renewing the employment contract is the need for changes in the service. We ask for an explanation of what changes and improvements are necessary in the Rural Support Service.
-The communication of the Rural Support Service management with organizations from various sectors has been excellent for almost ten years – meetings are held, farmers' questions are answered, the opinions of sector representatives are listened to, and the most valuable suggestions for improving operations are promptly implemented. Thus, making the system easy to understand for any client. What is the basis for accusing the service of a lack of communication?
-The media has reported that a competition will be held for the position of head of the RSS. We invite you to be aware that this position is not suitable for “party people” or “universal leaders”. There must be a very strict evaluation and selection of the head of the RSS, so that the most competent candidate who would be able to develop the service just as successfully in the future wins. We suggest evaluating Anna Vītola – Helvig’s competence and previous successful experience in leading a state structure, offering new challenges!
Achievements of the RSS in recent years:
– According to the beneficiaries, the Rural Support Service's electronic application system (EPS) is the simplest and most understandable IT system that has been implemented in Latvia so far, setting an example for systems such as e-Latvija or e-Medicine. For support payments 100%, all applicants apply electronically, which allows for faster disbursement of support payments, and there are fewer errors in support applications (the number of errors made by clients has decreased by more than 6 times over the last 3 years).
– The Rural Support Service has implemented a robot called Varis, which reviews all support applicants in the service database, then obtains information about the company's responsible persons in the Lursoft database, and checks the criminal record to see if the support recipient has been punished. Varis enters the information obtained into the service database. The robot allows saving human resources, thus making it possible to allocate more resources to further improving the quality of the RSS and improving processes.
– The Rural Support Service provides customer-oriented information. Various rural register data are publicly available to customers: anyone interested can add, view, download and edit geospatial information of interest to them.
– The service uses satellite images to determine current information about fields and their condition: identification of winter crops, mowing of grasslands, tillage, plowing of fallow lands, main crops, etc.
– Drones are used in the Rural Support Service. Unmanned aerial vehicles are used by all Regional Agricultural Boards for both area and investment control. This reduces the time required for inspections, and the controls are faster and more accurate.
– The service data is available on the open data portal for all users and for all purposes. The data is structured and available in a geospatial and machine-readable format, making it easier for data users to use it for data analysis purposes.
The Rural Support Service has received numerous awards and recognition at the national and international levels for both customer service and the implementation of IT technologies in the service.
We are not against change, however, we do not want to see negative changes in the activities of the Rural Support Service, which can potentially occur in the event of incompetent management. In order to prevent hasty decisions, non-governmental organizations call on the Minister of Agriculture to cooperate by expressing their vision for the development of the Rural Support Service, the agricultural and fisheries sectors!
Chairman of the Association "Farmers' Council" Juris Lazdins
Gustavs Norkārklis, Chairman of the Latvian Organic Agriculture Association
Chairman of the Board of the Association "Latvian Young Farmers Club" Kārlis Ruks
Didzis Šmits, President of the Association "Latvian Fish Industry Association"
Chairman of the Board of the Association "National Fisheries Producers Organization" Inārijs Voits