The Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (KNAB) has sent the Communication Report to the Cabinet of Ministers and Saeima. In this report are reflected results of the KNAB action in second part of 2014.
This report includes information about the fulfilment of the functions in corruption prevention and combating area, also results of the control over the political parties and its associations in fulfilling the implementation of financial rules.
In 2014 were received 1164 applications from natural and legal persons, additionally to that, in Report Center were heard 106 visitors and received 1941 call to a helpline, what is for 5% more than in 2013.
In the field of financial control over political parties, 2014, duo to the European Parliament and Saeima elections, was a year of to the challenge, when substantial increased amount of donated financial means. The largest amount of donations parties and their associations was received just before elections, in September of 2014 - more than 1,3 million euro and in October of 2014 - more than 2,5 million euro. During the year were received and published 593 reports, and 670 reports were verified about donations which political parties and their associations received.
In the field of the fight against corruption, in 2014 KNAB finished investigation in 39 criminal proceedings, from which, 27 criminal proceedings were sent to the prosecution institutions (it is for 11 more than in 2013).
In 2014 were made 200 decisions in the administrative violation matters (for 83 decisions more than in 2013), from those, 100 officials were punished with fines for a total amount of euro 10 115, in its turn, in 85 cases were imposed warning, but in 15 cases decision, to close case, were made. From these decisions, just 2 of them were canceled in the court, and 5 of them are being in the appeal process.
In accordance with the 31st Article of „Law on Prevention of Conflict of Interest in Activities of Public Officials”, KNAB publishes information on its home page about detected violations in actions of public officials. In the last year, 223 notifications about administrative sanctions were published.
In order to prevent inclusion of corruption promoting norms in drafts of legislation acts, in 2014 KNAB prepared 124 conclusions, which is for 4 more than in 2013 and in total, KNAB in the last year prepared 150 conclusions about drafts of legislation acts and planning documents.
With aim to analyze the practice of governmental authorities in the field of corruption prevention and to provide proposals for elimination of detected risks, in 2014 KNAB continued work to prepare overview about corruption risks in court systems and, following that, proposals for eliminating them will be made.
KNAB also has done substantial work in public education field, in 2014 were organized 115 educational enterprises, involving 3806 people, what is for 668 people more than 2013. Educated auditory were - public officials and employees of state and local municipality institutions, young people, teachers, representatives of political parties and sworn auditors. They gained knowledge in the anti-corruption, conflict of interests, ethics of public administration and restrictions for political campaign areas.
In last year, officials of the KNAB, by phone and in writing, has provided more than 600 explanations and consultations about restrictions for combining an office with another one, conflict of interest situations, ethics for public officials, corruption risks, anti-corruption measures, as well as about the financing of political parties action and pre-election campaigns.
Also must be mentioned, that in the last year KNAB actively participated in international cooperation activities, carried out coordination of implementation of GRECO recommendations and regularly participated in work of OECD group.