2024-07-11 02:37:41
Siliņa explained that the disciplinary commission found violations of the law on public procurement, which is why the following decision was made.
“The Disciplinary Affairs Commission has established that there are violations, and the manager is responsible for ensuring that the procurement procedure takes place in accordance with the law,” said Silina.
In the draft of the decree on the demotion of Tsitskovskis, it is stated that the commission saw “deliberate disobedience of the law” in his actions. Namely, Citskovskis concluded several procurement contracts without holding relevant procurement procedures. Also, Tsitskovskis has not refused to pay the bill for the contracted flights, informing the Prime Minister about them in writing, even though he is aware that the value of the contracted flights exceeds the value of the concluded contracts.
Evaluating the reasons for his actions stated in Tsitskovskis’s explanations, the commission saw a lack of understanding of the civil servant’s duties in general and the responsibility of the head of the institution, unwillingness to fulfill his duties and take responsibility, inability or unwillingness to supervise the work of his subordinates, as well as a passive attitude towards the performance of his duties.
Citskovskis will be able to appeal the decision, however, this does not prevent the execution of the order.
Siliņa explained at the press conference that the disciplinary commission determined the powers that are not recommended to be entrusted to Citskovskis when applying disciplinary punishment. The Commission does not recommend such positions of responsibility in which management-level matters for which violations have been identified must be organized. The demotion is valid for three years.
Also, Siliņa stated that Citskovskis has been offered the position of head of the Economic Security Department of the State Chancellery.
Speaking about the selection of a new head of the State Chancellery, Siliņa said that, in her opinion, the new head should be someone who understands the state administration, how the budgets of the ministries were formed, as well as how the work of the ministries and the State Chancellery is organized.
“I think it must be someone from the highest state administration,” said Silina.
At the beginning of April, in response to the information provided by the General Prosecutor’s Office about the initiation of criminal proceedings in order to assess the legality of the use of special flights by former Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņas (JV), Prime Minister Siliņa ordered the creation of a service inspection commission whose task was to find out the circumstances of violations of the laws and other regulatory acts specified in the application during the service inspection and evaluate the actions of officials.
First, it was planned that the service inspection would be completed by the end of April, but later the preparation of the report on the conditions of Kariņš’s flights was extended until the end of May. This inspection was completed at the beginning of June.
At the same time – at the beginning of May – Silina already issued an order to initiate a disciplinary case against Citskovski. Such a decision was made “on the basis of the conditions and violations of legal norms found in the interim report of the service inspection commission”.
In the interim report, it was concluded that Tsitskovskis committed a disciplinary offense, possibly by poorly fulfilling the norms of the law, namely unjustified non-fulfillment of official duties or negligent and poor-quality fulfillment of duties, including inappropriate handling of financial resources, as a result of which the state suffered a significant property loss or created a significant state interest harm.
LETA already reported that Siliņa previously decided to suspend Citskovski from his duties for the duration of the disciplinary case investigation in order to ensure a comprehensive and objective investigation of the disciplinary case, as well as to prevent Citskovski from obstructing the disciplinary case investigation.
As reported, the illegal and uneconomical behavior in organizing Kariņš’s special flights caused a total of around 545,000 euros of unjustified expenses for the budgets of Latvia and the Council of the European Union, the State Audit found in the audit.
VK believes that by using special flights even in cases where the country had not declared a state of emergency and when alternatives to regular commercial flights were available in a reasonable time, illegal actions with state budget funds were allowed, which resulted in additional state budget expenses of at least 221,566 euros. On the other hand, according to the estimates of the State Audit Office, the allowed non-economic behavior caused additional expenses of at least 323,688 euros for the Council of the EU.
“Thus, the law on the prevention of wastage of financial resources and property of a public person has not been observed,” assesses the State Audit Office and notes that the financial audit also found violations of regulatory acts related to the organization of public procurement and accounting.
According to the State Audit Office, the information obtained during the audit shows that the then Prime Minister Kariņš, as well as the Prime Minister’s Office and the State Chancellery under his direct authority, were actually involved in making and implementing decisions about the use of special flights on foreign missions. At that time, the Prime Minister’s office was headed by the current member of the Saeima, Jānis Patmalnieks (JV), while the State Chancellery was headed by Citskovskis.
The State Chancellery, on the other hand, believed that the prime minister’s office should take responsibility for the flights of former prime minister Kariņš.
added paragraph 4-5
2024-07-11 02:37:41