17 August this year is the last working day for Aina Stašāne, Director General of the State Forest Service. A. Stašāne is leaving the post by mutual agreement with the Minister of Agriculture, as the planned reforms within the State Forest Service no longer have the initial political support expressed by the leadership of the Ministry of Agriculture.
A. Stašāne took up the post of Director General of the State Forest Service on 29 July 2020. By order of the Ministry of Agriculture, A. Stašāne was transferred from her position as Deputy Director General of the State Environmental Service to the post of Director General of the State Forest Service for a five-year term.
“Upon taking office, I received a mandate from the Ministry of Agriculture to implement changes in the State Forest Service to address long-ignored issues. We began planning these changes last year, and initially, the Ministry of Agriculture also expressed support for the plans. At this moment, the support of the Minister and the Ministry for the initiated changes has been lost, therefore I have made the decision to leave the position of Director General. Despite my departure, the Service will still have to address previously identified problems such as a lack of objective and equal treatment of clients across all structural units, the susceptibility of decisions to influence, uneven staff workloads, low work efficiency and low pay. I sincerely thank my team, who proposed realistic solutions to the identified problems, including measures to significantly increase the efficiency of the Service's work. I also thank every employee who contributed to the planning and implementation of these changes, as well as the Service's partner organisations,” explains A. Stašāne regarding the reasons for her departure.
As her most significant achievements during her tenure as Director General of the State Forest Service, A. Stašāne cites the development of the Service's operational strategy, which was created with the involvement of middle management; the abolition of the Service's paid services, including the subscription to the State Forest Register; the initiation of a major transformation of client services; the launch of significant digitisation projects for the institution; and an increase in salaries for forest rangers at the end of 2021.