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"I agree with the proposal of the National Audit Office that the salary level of police officers should be agreed upon in the framework of a political agreement and tied to the average salary, for instance," Vaher told BNS on Wednesday, commenting on the audit report the National Audit Office published on the same day.

"For fine and smart young people to want to study to be and work as police officers, PPA believes that the minimum pay of police officers should be on the level of the country's average salary," Vaher said.

According to the audit office, the further decrease in staff numbers may have a significant impact on the capability of PPA.

"The decrease in staff numbers has practically stopped in the past year in PPA, but the future depends on how competitive of a salary can be paid to the employees," Vaher said.

According to Vaher, the changes and layoffs carried out in the fall of 2014 enabled the organization to raise the minimum pay of police officers to 975 euros, which means that it nearly equaled the average salary. He added that PPA's staff numbers almost did not decline in 2015 and in the first few months of 2016.

Vaher said that the audit gave a good overview of the creation and present state of PPA. "It includes wise critique and good proposals, and the dangers mentioned in the audit have to be taken seriously," he added.

The purpose of the audit was to assess the effectiveness of the management and implementation of the reforms at the Police and Border Guard Board, the impact of the reforms on the indicators characterising the quality of the organization's services and whether the reforms have created the premises of maintaining or improving the service level in the future.

The audit focused on the preparation of the organization's establishment and the subsequent period until 2015.

The Police and Border Guard Board is the largest state agency in Estonia, which has over 5,000 employees and whose activities concern all persons in Estonia.

The organization's budget in 2016 is 174.3 million euros which constitutes 1.97% of the state budget.