The largest ministerial offices in the Latvian government belong to Health Minister Hosam Abu Meri, Prime Minister Evika Silina, and Defense Minister Andris Sprudsa, as found by the LETA agency.
The office of Abu Meri employs 20 staff members, including the parliamentary secretary of the Ministry of Health Liga Abolinya. Of these, 16 are advisors to the minister, 10 of whom are freelance. In addition to the advisors, the office has staff members that are not present in the offices of other ministers, such as an assistant in the minister's office and an assistant minister for international communication.
The office of Prime Minister Silina has 14 employees, including parliamentary secretary Karina Ploka. The prime minister has a total of eight advisors on various sectors and three consultants. The office also includes the head and secretary of the prime minister.
Sprudsa's office consists of 13 employees. Nine of them are advisors in various sectors, including three freelancers. The office also employs the parliamentary secretary of the Ministry of Defense, Liene Gatera, who became a member of the Saeima this week.
The smallest number of staff, three people each, is found in the offices of the Minister of the Interior, Richard Kozlovskis, and the Minister of Climate and Energy, Kaspars Melnis. These offices do not have parliamentary secretaries of the ministries.
In total, eight ministries did not include their parliamentary secretaries in the staff of the ministers' offices.
In the offices of some ministers, the same staff members work. For example, Riga City Council member Martinš Kossovič is a freelance advisor on strengthening good governance in the office of Minister of Transport Aitis Švinka, as well as a freelance advisor on defense industry development for Sprudsa.
Not all staff members in the ministers' offices receive monetary compensation for their work.
