Progress and results in the field of corruption prevention and combating

Periodic Update (July 2004)

Elaboration of Anti-corruption policy documents

Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau in close co-operation with other institutions involved in the corruption prevention and combating has elaborated the National Programme for Corruption Prevention and Combating for 2004-2008 and that has been submitted to the Government in July, 2004. The Programme clearly sets priorities, defines 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.

• Activities planned in the area of prevention and combating of state capture as provided in the Programme:

- tighten control over political parties financing by preventing and combating effect of individuals or economic groups to the state and municipal policy making process;
- improvement of control mechanisms over financial activities of political parties and electors' associations;
- creation of a system where involvement of private persons in decision making process concerning the state and municipal policy would be based on principles of equality, transparency and openness.

• To prevent and combat inexpedient and illegal use of state and municipal property, following activities are foreseen:

- elimination of shortcomings in legislation concerning the prevention of squander of state and municipal property and financial means;
- control tightening over use of state and municipal property;
- improvement of control over public procurement and provision of liability for violators;
- to provide revisions of use of state and municipal means;
- provision of transparency of state and municipal budgets.

• Improvement of control over illegal income and expenditure is to be achieved by:

- improvement of legislation in the area of tax administration, especially paying attention to creation of control system over income for individuals, including public officials, as well as implementation of proper penal system;
- improvement of control over property status of individuals;
- prevention of legalization of illegally acquired means.

• Activities for improving corruption combating in ensuring quick and high quality investigation of criminal cases:

- provision of protection for witnesses and whistle-blowers;
- improvement of international cooperation.

• To ensure legitimate and expedient allocation of funding of European Union and international institutions and organizations by providing control and monitoring mechanisms over the allocated funding, as well as by defining the scope of those public officials involved.
• A number of activities are planned to provide and to improve internal anti-corruption systems in every state and municipal institution:

- introduction of stricter criteria in the personnel selection process;
- strengthening of ethical values in state and municipal institutions.

• Last line of activities of the National Corruption Prevention and Combating Programme for 2004- 2008 is devoted to rising legal awareness among public officials and individuals on issues related to corruption. That includes activities like, education of representatives from both public and private sector on corruption prevention and combating issues, involvement of the society in policy making and decision taking process as well as public surveys on corruption manifestation and extension.

Current results

Fairly good progress has been made in terms of implementation of the Bureau's functions in corruption prevention and combating, for example:

- there are 34 criminal cases in the competence of the Bureau, 29 of those were initiated by the Bureau. 23 criminal cases are passed to the Prosecutor's Office for criminal prosecution. Most of the criminal cases were initiated for using official position in bad faith and accepting bribes. 3 criminal cases have been passed to the Court and in two of the cases a court judgement has been made. Former Prosecutor Nazarovs was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and confiscation of property. In April, 2004 a criminal case was initiated against another Prosecutor for demanding and receiving a bribe in amount of 10 000 USD. Three criminal cases have been initiated against police officers and in two cases demand to pay was made by police officers as an exchange to receive back a stolen car. Further investigation of criminal offences related to the process of introduction of digital television in Latvia has lead to charges against two more public officials involved in the case;
- the Bureau has examined activities of 460 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. Within the given authority to bring administrative charges against public officials for violation of restrictions provided in the respective law, a fine was imposed against 36 public officials. In 42 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 order to carry out income tax audit. In 4 cases obligation to pay illegally acquired income to the state budget was introduced. Officials of the Bureau have also given lectures to representatives of regional municipalities and Security Police employees on prevention conflict of interest issues;
- implementing an extensive examination of the political parties finances it was detected that 25 political parties in 2002 have received donations in contradiction with the Law on Financing of Political Organizations (Parties) in total amount of 289 875 LVL (approx. 439204 EUR). According to the law these illegal donations received by the parties have to be paid to the state and so far only 116 406 LVL have been transferred to the account provided for such purpose. The Bureau receives declarations of parties' financial activities (declaration on expenditure of pre-election campaigns, election expenditure declaration, and annual financial declaration) and compiles and analyses the processed information provided in financial declarations of political organisations (parties) and their associations as well as monitors legitimacy of received declarations and parties' donations.

During the last 6 months the Bureau has asked the Court to stop activities of 8 political parties for not following regulations provided in respective law. In 3 cases claim to impose administrative charges against representatives of political parties have been forwarded to the Court.

- in the area of public procurement the Bureau has examined more than 600 complaints on violations of procedures of public procurement and alleged corruptive activities, received from the Procurement Monitoring Bureau (338), legal entities and natural persons (217). In 33 cases the Bureau has started in-depth examinations. 19 cases have been forwarded for further investigation due to detected features of criminal offences.

- the Code of Ethics was designed to promote the observance of ethical standarts in daily work of employees of the Bureau. The main values of the Code of Ethics are fairness, accountability, objectivity and protection of information used for professional purposes. Complaints received on alleged violations of the Code are to examined by the Ethics Committee.

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.

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 Council comprises representatives from professional associations and organizations, it is expected that problems brought up at the Council meetings would help to improve respective area of activity. At the first session of the Board Mr. Valts Kalnins from Public Policy Centre Providus was elected as a chairman of the Board.