At least €54,000 may have been stolen from the budget of the Rezekne Technical School, established by the State Audit Office. The Ministry of Education and Science (MoES), the State Police, and the prosecutor's office have been informed of the alleged fraud, and a criminal process has been initiated.
It was previously reported that the head of the educational institution, Benita Virbule, has been suspended from work during the investigation. The Ministry of Education and Science (MoES) has not provided any information about the nature of the alleged violations, promising to provide additional information only after the completion of the internal investigation. The State Audit Office promised to present an interim report soon, but has not yet provided any comments.
The State Audit Office now reports that during the audit of the technical school regarding payments to service providers, possible fraudulent actions were identified - intentional distortion of payment documents to transfer funds to third parties.
This became possible because the name of the payment recipient or the name and surname of the recipient were not verified against the account number (IBAN) during the transfer of funds, which allowed funds to be transferred to individuals who were not entitled to them, the auditors concluded.
Payments were made from the technical school's accounts to three different accounts of the same beneficiary. For example, payments for services provided by the relevant enterprise were made not only to the account specified in the contract but also to three other accounts, the ownership of which is unknown to the State Audit Office.
There were also several cases where the same account was paid twice - once to the accounts specified in the invoices and service contracts, and a second time to another account, the ownership of which is unknown to the State Audit Office. For instance, an invoice for €355 for the relevant company was initially paid to the account specified in the contract, and ten days later, the same payment was transferred again to another account. In total, from 2019 to 2025, nearly €54,000 was transferred to these three accounts.
Discrepancies were also found between the documents submitted by the technical school and the payment data obtained by the State Audit Office from the State Treasury. This, according to the State Audit Office, indicates attempts to conceal information.
The interim report of the State Audit Office states that after questions from auditors and requests for information, the director of the technical school suspended the accountant without pay until the circumstances are clarified. The director also reported that she informed the police about the violations.
The police have also initiated a criminal process under the third part of Article 177 of the Criminal Law, that is, for fraud on a large scale or as part of an organized group.
Ilze Badere, a member of the State Audit Office Council, told Latvian Radio that in this case, suspicion mainly falls on two officials of the technical school.
After the State Audit Office requested information and explanations regarding the transactions, the accounting system of the Rezekne Technical School was corrected by changing the account numbers of the service providers.
The State Audit Office notes that on October 9 of this year, a regulation of the European Union came into force, which requires payment service providers to verify the compliance of the recipient's account number (IBAN) and their name before making a payment. This, according to auditors' forecasts, will significantly reduce the risk of such fraudulent cases.
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