Kulbergs: “Almost half a billion euros is being spent on this!” 0 14

This evening in a large interview with Latvian TV, Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs explained that he has halted all state procurement in the IT sector for a month to obtain complete information about the specifics of these procurements and the companies involved. He noted that the state spends almost 500 million euros on IT procurement, with over 300 million of that amount being 'utilized' by just three companies! At the same time, the head of government hinted that these companies are not particularly active in the private IT business. In other words, they are solely feeding off budget money!

In general, speaking about state procurement, the Prime Minister emphasized that Latvia is ahead of the entire European Union in terms of spending on state procurement - we spend 14.5% of GDP on state procurement, while the EU average is 13.5% of GDP.

According to the Prime Minister's calculations, it is quite realistic to reduce state procurement expenses by 20 percent.