Luxury office of Development Fund raises eyebrows
17.08.2012, 10:05Estonian Development Fund has asked a leading Estonian law firm to provide a legal opinion on the decision of the Fund’s former chairman Ott Lumi and supervisory board manager Raivo Vare to lease luxury offices for the Fund in Tornimäe office building, writes Eesti Päevaleht daily.
The legal analysis is believed to indicate that Lumi and Vare may have overstepped their authority because the lease of such expensive office premises was not in line with the approved budget of the Fund.
Vare did not wish to comment the issue to Eesti Päevaleht, but admitted that he had briefly seen the report.
“I was shown it a short time ago by the board chairman and I need to study it in detail before I give any comments. At first sight it seems that the whole issue is artificially inflated,” said Vare, adding that the supervisory board of the Fund will discuss the issue at the end of August.
Some sources say that the issue of office rental has been raised by some members in the supervisory board,
One of the supervisory board members, Jaan Männik, has said, for instance, that the office issue was a shock for many members when the new CEO Tõnis Arro raised it at the board meeting.
We need to study the use of funds and Arro needs to get to the bottom of it, Männik said at the beginning of June.
Also current Fund’s management board chairman Tõnis Arro did not wish to comment. “It‘s a confidential document, it’s all that I can say at this point.”
In earlier interviews, Arro has said that the issue of how to terminate the expensive office lease is one of the priorities in his list. This may be difficult since according to the contract, the Fund needs to leave the premises at least for another year.