A letter sent to the city leadership and factions of the Riga City Council by the Latvian Association of Wholesale Electric Material Traders and the Latvian Association of Energy Efficiency indicates possible corruption in the capital of Latvia.
Earlier, business associations had already sent a letter to Mayor Viesturs Kleinbergs, expressing concerns about the procurement of the Riga City Council, which is being conducted by the Department of External Spaces and Mobility.
The ESKO plan, currently promoted by the capital's authorities, is assessed by industry professionals as 'one of the largest public lighting projects in Latvia'; it includes more than half of all streetlights in the country. Its financial volume exceeds 10 million euros.
Meanwhile, according to industry data, 'the preparer/expert of the ESKO project documentation is Livarts LLC.' They will have to develop conditions, no less than, for 36,000 streetlights in Riga! However, the publicly available data on the company's turnover in 2024 amounted to only 17,478 euros, and the year ended with losses. 'Over the last three years, the company has had negative equity,' the letter from the two associations notes, 'as well as a low level of liquidity... which significantly lags behind commonly accepted indicators of financial stability.'
Since its establishment in 2012, the firm has only participated once in a small-scale public procurement competition, and it was the sole bidder.
And the cherry on top – the company has only one employee!
'These indicators indicate limited resource availability and administrative capacity and raise concerns about the ability to ensure timely and quality execution of the Riga City Council contract, considering the project's scope.'
Meanwhile, just to survey the lighting infrastructure, so to speak, one needs to cover 1,000 km of Riga's streets. Of course, Google Street View can be used, but computer images are not always accurate and do not reflect the real situation.
'It is unclear how one person (the board member of Livarts LLC, Vilnis Strazds) can qualitatively fulfill these duties in the planned 6 months,' the electricians ironically write. 'If for some unknown reasons this work can indeed be done by one person, then it is unclear why the municipality does not do it itself.' As is known, in 2024, the Rīgas gaisma agency, which is full of lighting craftsmen, was merged into the aforementioned municipal department.
For his part, Mr. Strazds also serves as the technical director of two firms directly involved in the lighting business – RCG Lighthouse and Lighthouse ESCO, which poses a risk of conflict of interest.
In conclusion of the letter, the leaders of the two associations – Denis Belyaev and Raimonds Keirans, provide justified calculations on how Riga can save 6.6 million euros on lighting fixtures. If, of course, it does not engage in 'wasteful activities and squandering of municipal funds.' Although, perhaps, someone here is in on it?
