At the meeting of September 8, the Cabinet of Ministers approved Juris Gaiķis proposed by the Minister of Economics as the Chairman of the Competition Council. Juris Gaiķis is expected to start fulfilling the new duties on September 14.
The position of Chairman of the Competition Council had been vacant since 16 April 2020, when its long-term head Skaidrīte Ābrama ceased to perform the duties of the Chairwoman; from that date, the Competition Council has been working in short composition and one of its members, Jānis Račko, has been acting as the head of the Competition Council.
The competition for the competition for selection of the Chairperson of the Competition Council organised by the State Chancellery ended on 28 July 2020. In assessing the decision of the competition commission, the Minister of Economics advised that J. Gaiķis be approved as the Chairman of the Competition Council.
52% of employees have left the Competition Council over the past three years. Such high turnover currently poses a direct threat to the effective implementation of the basic functions defined in the Competition Law, including the exercise of powers relating to the application of European Union competition law. “The Competition Council should ensure effective monitoring of abuses of the monopolistic position or unfair agreements between market players in all sectors of the economy. Alongside, the Competition Council has to ensure an investigation in a number of major competition cases still this year, including serious infringements of competition law in the construction of buildings, waste management and rail transport sectors. By evaluating the materials submitted by the competition commission and meeting J.Gaiķis in person, I was convinced that under the leadership of J.Gaiķis the Competition Council would ensure effective competition monitoring. He has clearly identified the current challenges in the Council’s activities and has offered solutions to them,” emphasises the Minister of Economics Jānis Vitenbergs.
In the provided references, J. Gaikis is described as a highly determined, result-oriented leader, for whom operative and effective action is important. His previous experience: heading the State Medical Commission for the Assessment of Health Condition and Working Ability (since March 2017 until now), J. Gaikis has demonstrated his ability to define and transform into action the strategic vision of the development of the authority, the ability to carry out the optimisation of work processes of the authority, improvements in quality of services, employee recruitment, motivation and development policies.
From October 2012 to February 2017, J. Gaiķis fulfilled the duties of director of National Tax Board of the State Revenue Service (SRS), while earlier he occupied the position of both the Head and Deputy Head in the SRS Legal Board in 2001-2012.
J.Gaiķis has a Master’s degree in Law acquired at the University of Latvia.