According to nra.lv, Latvian government agencies are spending more on IT each year - and we are now talking about not tens, but hundreds of millions of euros. If in 2020 the total expenditure was just over 53 million, the current budget plans feature more than 100 million euros. The increase is almost twofold.
But the deeper journalists delved into these figures, the more unexpected details they uncovered.
Who Spends the Most
More than half of all expenditures are concentrated in five ministries - leading is the Ministry of Finance, followed by the Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of the Interior.
For example, last year, more than 17 million euros were spent on IT services for the State Revenue Service alone. The Ministry of Justice saw expenses rise from 8.6 million to nearly 12.2 million - their ministry maintains large registries and information systems. The Ministry of the Interior has doubled its spending over six years - to 11.4 million.
The Ministry of Education shows a jump of almost two times: from 5.1 million to 11.5 million euros. Moreover, part of the expenses is for centralized purchases for technical schools and vocational schools.
The Most Surprising Expense Lines
But it is the details that raise the most questions.
Journalists found payments that bewilder even IT specialists. For example:
one technical school paid 270 euros for the WALK 15 application - the very one that is available for free to every smartphone owner; and the Riga Vocational School of Metalworking transferred 11,948 euros to the company "LK Holding" for creating an Instagram account and a promotional video. The result? The account has only 145 followers, and videos appear rarely and with huge gaps in between.
Against the backdrop of such stories, discussions about "rational use of funds" sound increasingly ironic.
Where Large Sums Go
There are also quite understandable expense items: purchasing licenses, server maintenance, registry support, domains, consultations. The Ministry of Education, for example, pays nearly 2 million euros to the Dutch company Elsevier for access to the international scientific database SCOPUS, and almost the same amount to the company Tet for IT services.
Nevertheless, the overall picture is still alarming: the figures are growing faster than officials can explain where the money is actually going. As noted by "Kas notiek Latvijā?", the Ministry of Defense, whose expenses have jumped to 15 million euros, is particularly reluctant to comment on the situation, with most of the increase occurring in recent months.
