On the 12th and 13th of April Latvian Minister of Justice Inese Lībiņa-Egnere will be serving as acting Prime Minister, according to the order issued by PM Evika Siliņa.
This decision was made because the PM will be away on a visit to Austria on those two days.
As of today, the 11th of April, Siliņa also serves as acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, because Krišjānis Kariņš decided to step down from this post amid the scandal that revolves around the special flights he used during his term as Latvian PM.
For months the scandal that revolves around the private expensive flights Krišjānis Kariņš and his accompanying delegations had used for foreign visits during his term as Latvian PM has occupied the heads of many Latvian residents. According to information from the State Chancellery, the special flights cost the state budget EUR 613 830. Together with funding from the EU, expenses on special flights reached EUR 1.36 million.
In the second half of March, the Prosecutor General’s Office announced that it had initiated criminal proceedings for allegedly wasting funds in connection with the use of special flights on these missions.
The State Audit found in a recent audit that the illegal and uneconomical conduct in the organisation of Krišjānis Kariņš’s special flights incurred EUR 545 000 of unjustified expenses for the Latvian and Council of EU budget.
The State Audit considers that by using special flights in cases where no emergency situation had been declared in the state and when alternatives to scheduled commercial flights were available within a reasonable time, illegal actions with state budget funds were committed.
This led to additional state budget expenditure of at least EUR 221 566. On the other hand, the alleged non-economic behaviour, according to the State Audit, resulted in additional expenditure of at least EUR 323 688 to the Council of Europe.
According to the State Audit, information acquired in the audit indicates that in the adoption and implementation of decisions on the use of special flights on foreign missions, both the then Prime Minister Kariņš and the Prime Minister’s Office and the State Chancellery under his direct authority were involved. The Prime Minister’s Office was then managed by now Saeima deputy Jānis Patmalnieks. The State Chancellery remains under Jānis Citskovskis.
As previously reported, it is unlikely a new Minister of Foreign Affairs will be elected by the Saeima this week. Discussions about potential candidates still continue.
Among the possible candidates mentioned behind the scenes are: former parliamentary secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica, Saeima deputy Ģirts Valdis Kristovskis, Special Assignments Ambassador of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Baiba Braže and others.
Also read: Latvian ex-PM’s private flights estimated to have incurred EUR 545 000 in unjustifiable expenses
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Minister of Justice to serve as acting Latvian PM during Siliņa’s visit to Austria
