PM Kulbergs rates his cabinet '7 out of 10' after first month in office

The Prime Minister indicated that he is not completely satisfied with this result, and the work could progress faster. He rated his government's work with 7 points out of 10. "There is definitely room for improvement, especially in terms of speed," said Kulbergs. Kulbergs claimed that three of the 61 'priority' tasks have been completed so far. "I am not completely satisfied with the fact that only 3 out of 61 have been completed. It is not good in numbers, but there are 16 action items, in which we see that preparatory work has been done in each of the ministries to implement these priorities. It is clear that 61 cannot be completed in one month. But the focus must be there, there will be a repeat meeting in a month," said Kulbergs. The Prime Minister noted that progress can be seen, for example, in the work of the Ministry of the Interior with resolving the issue of bomb shelters, as well as in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with import-export issues. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Smart Administration and Regional Development is monitoring the development of electoral systems and the established deadlines. At the same time, Kulbergs said that progress is still greater than he initially thought. The main reason for the slowish pace of work is that "we have been left with a legacy that has not been addressed for decades, put in a drawer and kicked about like a football," the prime minister said. When asked why these ministerial priorities are still not publicly visible, as previously promised, Kulbergs pointed out that this is the task of the State Chancellery, but currently there is a lack of IT resources, it is vacation time, and in addition, the State Chancellery still does not have a head. "Yes, the work in that case has not been completed, I take the criticism on myself," said the prime minister. He promised out that the tasks would soon be published on the State Chancellery website. "I don't want it to be just an Excel table. It could have been, I could have put it in right away. I wanted it to look nicer, so that progress could be seen – green, yellow, orange, red," he said. The State Chancellery has said in a statement to the media that several important priority tasks of the Kulbergs government in the areas of national security, energy, economy, elections, and family support have been implemented – though with no specificity on precisely what all the priority tasks are, it's a hard to verify the claim. However, Finance Minister Māris Kučinskis (United List), himself a former prime minister, published a list of his three priority tasks, naming them as "a review of the state budget, the publication of procurement data, and the development of a new Local Government Financial Equalization (PFI) law." "It is important not only to think about where and how we could reduce current expenses, but also to focus on structural reforms so that the benefits are in the long term. Therefore, it is essential to organize both the procurement system and the local government financing system," said Kučinskis.