The Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau Takes on Ports 0 5

The State Audit Office stated in the spring that significant deficiencies were identified regarding the legal status of the fund, financial management, and personnel operations. As noted by the State Audit Office, incomplete legal regulation complicates the oversight of the fund's status and activities; furthermore, there are no effective systems for controlling and managing the expenditure of funds and internal regulations for approving expenses.

The State Audit Office pointed out that decisions on funding within the fund are made by unauthorized individuals, and potential personal interests of employees from the Secretariat of the Latvian Council of Ports, Transit, and Logistics were discovered during the approval of transactions.

During the audit, it was established that the fund entered into contracts with employees of the Ministry of Transport for services that duplicate the functions of the ministry, while the Ministry of Transport employees did not approve the combination of positions. Additionally, the fund paid remuneration to Ministry of Transport employees who were, in fact, not present at work, and the annual reports of the fund were not submitted to the competent authorities.

The State Audit Office informed the Prosecutor General's Office about the results of the audit. The statement was forwarded to the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau, which, following its departmental investigation, initiated a criminal process, the State Audit Office reported to the LETA agency.

The Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau confirmed to the LETA agency that a criminal process regarding possible abuse of office and service forgery for selfish purposes was initiated in June.

At the current stage of the investigation, no individual is a suspect. The bureau did not provide further details about the progress of the investigation.