Riga, Nov 14 (LETA) - The Saeima on Thursday adopted amendments to the Law on Governance of Capital Shares of Public Entity and Management of Capital Companies in the final reading, which provides for freezing the remuneration of boards and councils of capital companies for two years and broader delegation to the Cabinet of Ministers to set the criteria for determining and reviewing the amount of remuneration of capital companies.

Opposition MP Janis Vitenbergs (National Alliance) said in the debate that these amendments would change nothing.

He pointed to the example of Martin Gauss, CEO of airBaltic, who earned EUR 830,000 last year and whose salary could be increased by 2.6 percent if these amendments are adopted. That is more than EUR 20,000, Vitenbergs stressed. The draft law provides that a 2.6 percent increase is possible if the salary was not increased last year.

Members of the National Alliance (NA) had tabled several proposals, including that the chairman of the board can only work for one capital company. Opposition MPs stressed in the debate that the overall system of boards and councils should be changed, as currently several people are "professional board members" who hold board member positions in several companies.

Ainars Slesers, leader of the Latvia First party, believes that a number of councils should be abolished. The system needs to be changed not cosmetically, but substantially, the opposition politician said.

The initiative to freeze the remuneration of boards of state-owned companies was submitted to the Saeima by President Edgars Rinkevics.