Construction, Financial Services, Latvia, Legislation, Russia, Security

At least EUR 1 mln have been illegally spent on maintaining the Latvian-Estonian and Latvian-Lithuanian borders.

The State Audit Office already since 2016 has pointed out different discrepancies and delays in the projects on the eastern border and has called on the Interior Ministry to correct them. In the latest audit it was concluded that even though the allocated funding has been fully used, construction has not been completed by December 31, 2019, as planned.

Auditors believe that the Interior Ministry has not sufficiently supervised the construction of the state borderland at the Latvian-Russian border and the State Border Guard and the Provision State Agency handled state funds illegally. In addition, structural solutions of the approved construction design have been changed, requiring more funds from the state budget than estimated.

According to the State Audit Office, additional EUR 4.69 mln will be needed to complete works on the Latvian-Russian border.

There were in total 42.69 mln euros allocated for the construction of the eastern state border of Latvia from the state budget for the period between 2015 and 2022, of which 26.8 mln euros were allocated for the construction of the Latvian-Russian borderland.

The State Audit Office discovered that trees have been logged illegally and disappeared. The borderland area has bee illegally expanded. Tenders have been organized to meet interests of one bidder.

Also, the State Audit Office discovered that money has been paid for work that has not been done or cannot be done. 

Arranging of Latvia's eastern border is a matter of national security and security of the Schengen external border. More than EUR 40 mln have been allocated for the purpose from the state budget in 2015-2022.

Chief Auditor Elita Krumina told the press today that the audit has discovered significant and all-embracing violations in the work of the State Border guard. She reminded that the State Audit Office audits measures in a random order, which means that the misspent millions of euros refer only to the measures and projects actually audited by the auditors.

As reported, the Internal Security Bureau last year detained Normunds Garbars, deputy head of the Border Guard's Armaments, Logistics and Technical Resources Department who formerly was the Border Guard's chief, as well as two representatives of a road construction company Igate on suspicion of financial fraud and violations committed during infrastructure development at Latvian-Russian and Latvian-Belarusian border.