The competition, announced on May 20, will be held in three rounds. In the first round, the board will assess the documents submitted and the applicant's compliance with the minimum requirements. In the second round, the candidates will be interviewed. The third round of the competition will test the applicants' management competencies.
At the end of the competition, the highest-scoring candidate will be recommended to the Minister for Economic Affairs for appointment. The composition of the selection board for the post of Head of the LIAA is determined by the relevant Minister for the sector, in this case, the Minister for Economics.
The evaluation committee for the competition for the post of Director of LIAA is chaired by Ieva Lībķena, Deputy Director for Public Administration, Head of the Public Administration Policy Department of the State Chancellery.
The Commission is composed of Normunds Audzišs, Executive Director of the Latvian Association of Large Cities, Katrīna Zariņa, representative of the Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Edmunds Valantis, State Secretary of the Ministry of Economics, and Artūrs Zandersons, Adviser to the Minister of Economics.
Independent observers, Kaspars Gorkšs, Director General of the Employers' Confederation of Latvia and Gints Kaminskis, Chairman of the Latvian Association of Local Governments, were also invited to participate in the evaluation of the candidates on the recommendation of the Minister of Economics.
The new competition for the important post comes after Minister of Economics Viktors Valainis (Greens and Farmers Union) decided to end the previous competition for the position of LIAA director without a result. His decision came at the end of an already lengthy process which saw two candidates eventually put forward from a list of 52 applicants.
The minister expressed his desire to see information about a wider range of candidates, LTV program "De facto" reported, an outcome which has not materialized.
