Periodic update (June 2004)
Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau
Anti-corruption Measures in Latvia
June, 2004
Current situation, results and further steps
Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau in close co-operation with other institutions involved in the corruption prevention and combating has elaborated the National Strategy for Corruption Prevention and Combating 2004-2008 that was adopted by the Government on 8 March, 2004. The Strategy points out basic principles and objectives of the corruption prevention and combating policy as well as defines problems solution of which requires implementation of the national anti-corruption policy. Based on indicated current problems seven guidelines of activities in the future are stated:
- prevention and combating of state capture;
- prevention and combating of inexpedient, inefficient, and illegal use of state and municipal property;
- activities for improving the control of property status of individuals (including state officials);
- activities for improving corruption combating in ensuring quick and high quality investigation of criminal cases;
- activities for ensuring legitimate and expedient allocation of funding of European Union and international institutions and organizations;
- activities for providing and improving internal anti-corruption systems in every state and municipal institution;
- activities for increasing legal awareness of anti-corruptive issues among state officials and other members of the society.
Based on the Strategy the CPCB has elaborated National Programme for Corruption Prevention and Combating that has been submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers. The program will clearly set priorities, define responsible institutions, their tasks and timeframe for the implementation of the strategy thus effectively coordinating the cooperation amongst all the agencies involved. The CPCB is responsible for control and co-ordination of the implementation of the program and report on implementation to the Cabinet of Ministers.
Fairly good progress has been made in terms of implementation of the Bureau's functions in corruption prevention and combating since the time the
Bureau became fully operational in February 2003, for example:
- the Bureau has initiated already 34 criminal cases. 18 criminal cases are passed to the Prosecutor's Office for criminal prosecution. 3 criminal cases have been passed to the Court. 5 criminal cases were initiated on forgery of payment orders for the benefit of political organizations (parties, represented in the Parliament: "New Era", "Union of Farmers and Greens", People's Party, );
- the Bureau has examined activities of almost 430 public officials in regard to the restrictions and prohibitions imposed on them by the law "On Prevention of Conflict of Interest in Actions of State Officials" and 1237 declarations of assets. Since June 2003 the Bureau is mandated to bring administrative charges against public officials for violation of restrictions provided in the respective law. In activities of 74 public officials administrative violations were detected and in 34 cases a fine was imposed and mostly for violation of restrictions on combining the offices and for taking decisions in their own interest. In 51 cases, nonconformity of income and expenditure was detected in activities of public officials and the information has been passed to the State Revenue Service; in 4 cases obligation to pay income tax to the state budget for illegally acquired income was introduced;
- implementing an extensive examination of the political parties finances it was detected that 23 political parties in 2002 have received donations in contradiction with the Law on Financing of Political Organizations (Parties) in total amount of 308 555,53 LVL (approx. 467 508 EUR). According to the law these illegal donations received by the parties have to be paid back to the State Treasury. In 2 cases the Bureau has submitted claims to the Court on refund of illegal donations. Total of 74 717, 95 LVL was contributed to political parties using false payment orders;
- in the area of public procurement the Bureau has examined more than 100 complaints on violations of procedures of public procurement, received from the Procurement Monitoring Bureau, legal entities and natural persons. In 5 cases violations of public procurement procedure were detected; 8 cases have been forwarded for the further investigation that has served as a ground to initiate one criminal case within the state institution.
To improve efficiency of control system over income for natural persons and to solve currently acknowledged problems detecting the origin of illicitly acquired means the Bureau has initiated creation of working group comprising officials from state institutions as well as nongovernmental community. Expected outcome is elaboration of appropriate and efficient approach for income control. One of the issues brought up in the discussions is introduction of initial declarations in Latvia.
Legal framework
The Bureau has elaborated a number of amendments in the legislation of Latvia to increase the Bureau's capabilities in both- prevention and combating of corruption based on acknowledged experience while fulfilling the functions.
Amendments to the Law on Financing of Political Parties were adopted by the Parliament in February of 2004. The general objective of the amendments was to eliminate existing loopholes in the law, improve the control mechanisms and make the process of political party financing more transparent. Stricter criteria of political parties' financing, as well as stronger sanctions for violations of this law were introduced by those amendments. Among many other changes, restrictions to receive donations from legal persons were introduced apart from an obligation to declare source of financing. According to the amendments, it is the obligation of donors to inform the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau on the origin of financing sources, indicating mode, bulk, place and data of attainment of each source of financing. In order to improve possibilities of the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau to control financial action of political organizations, a more clear and effective mechanism of declaration of financial action is being introduced.
Criminal liability for intermediation in financing political organizations has been introduced in the Criminal Law.
The Bureau is mandated to require information from credit institutions while investigating criminal cases (with a prosecutor's permission) according to the Credit Institution Law. The Bureau has also elaborated amendments that foresee receiving information on transfer settlements, income, debts and business deals of public officials as well as to examine legitimacy of donations and financial assets received by political organizations and indicated in financial declarations of those organizations. To receive the mentioned information, permission of Chairmen of the Supreme Court or an authorised judge is required.
To improve and to clarify definitions given in the law On Prevention of Conflict of Interest in Actions of State Officials, as well as to extend scope of public officials affected by the restrictions from the abovementioned law, a number of amendments have been elaborated.
It has to also notify that in order to meet full alignment with Protocol 2 of PIF Convention the necessary amendments to the Criminal Law have been elaborated aimed at introduction of criminal liability of legal persons and adopted by the Parliament. In order to introduce criminal liability of legal persons it is necessary to amend numerous laws and not just Criminal Law.
Strengthening the institutional capacity of the Bureau
During the period from January 31- March 17 two international experts worked within the frame of the project "Strengthening the Institutional Capacity of the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau". The project was financed from the grant fund of the government of Japan and for the implementation of this project terms of reference on anti-corruption component were elaborated. After the announced selection a representative from the Central Corruption Prevention Agency in France Jean Pierre Bueb and former director of Corruption Prevention and Education, Independent Commission against Corruption in Australia Peter G Gifford were selected as short-term consultants.
During their assignment in Latvia, a number of workshops were organized for the employees of the Bureau on management organization issues, on importance of work planning of an institution as well as on detection methods of violations of public procurement procedures. Report on evaluation of the work of the Bureau, including recommendations to improve the work was elaborated by both consultants.
The biggest impact of experts was assistance in development of draft of Action Plan for the Bureau for 2004-2008. That is a document which covers main areas of activities and foresees measures to implement those activities in corruption prevention, combating and education of the society for the term of 4 years. The Action Plan is to be further elaborated and approved by the Board of the Bureau.
Progress on implementation of international projects
Based on approval of the European Commission funding of the project "Development and Strengthening of the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau" was allocated within the PHARE National programme. Currently, the project fiche was reviewed and decision was taken to replace the Twining activities with technical assistance of foreign experts. Process of amendments to the project is being finalised to meet fully the needs and requirements of the Bureau.
With an aim to improve and raise the level of technical equipment and to provide related training, the project "Supporting the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau" was elaborated by the National Bureau of Investigation in Finland and the Bureau in 2003. Equipment delivery intended for surveillance activities alone with appropriate training sessions in both countries- Latvia and Finland- has taken place. Total costs of the project are 60 000 EURO.
Finally, the Bureau is the main beneficiary of the World Bank grant "Strengthening the Capacity of Institutions in Charge of Fighting Corruption" apart from the anticorruption Parliamentarian commission and NGO community. The mentioned grant will finance activities to build capacity in the prevention department of the Bureau. The total amount of the grant is USD 235,000.
Public-private partnership
The government acknowledges the importance of partnership between public and private institutions in corruption prevention. In order to ensure the necessary linkage with the society and promote the public confidence in the Bureau's objectives, creation of the Public Consultative Council of the Bureau has taken place. The Public Consultative Council includes members from the NGO sector, mass media and private sector. Given that the Board comprises representatives from professional associations and organizations, it is expected that problems brought up at the Board meetings would help to improve respective area of activity.
The non-governmental organisation Delna, the Latvian chapter of Transparency International, continues to play an active role in promoting transparency in public institutions. Numerous amendments in the legislation were elaborated in the working group with participation of representatives from Delna and Providus, Public Policy Centre.