For eight years political party Unity was using IT company “SOAAR” developed system for its election congress, as reported by TV3 programme Nekā personīga.
“SOAAR” is mentioned in the criminal case regarding the possible wasting of budget funds of the Central Election Commission (CVK). In it, the prosecution office presents charges to former CVK chairperson Kristīne Bērziņa, two other commission members and a representative of “SOAAR”.
According to the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (KNAB), these people performed actions to make sure this specific IT company wins in a procurement negotiation procedure and secures the rights to provide services in the 2021 municipal elections.
Former head of Unity’s office Normunds Orleāns claims that the party threatened businessmen in order to receive services free of charge.
Nekā personīga reports that this is about “SOAAR” company. It was asked to provide electronic vote-counting for Unity’s congresses.
Technical support from “SOAAR” cost the party more than EUR 20 000. However, the party never paid for it. The company’s board member Renārs Kadžulis claims the services in question were requested from him in 2011. By 2020 he refused providing services and requested payment. Soon after, however, he started having problems with the law. These problems now take the shape of four criminal proceedings.
Communication was done with Unity representative Sanita Stelpe-Segliņa. The main organiser was the party’s then secretary general Artis Kampars. Kadžulis wrote e-mails to Kampars. There are no response letters, however, as all communication was done either over the phone or in person. Only Stelpe-Segliņa did her part electronically. The e-mails she sent concerned technical details.
Claiming he doesn’t remember any fine details, Kampars allowed that in the initial period it is possible the vote-counting system was handed to the party for testing. “And there should be payments. I cannot recall many payments off the top of my head, as to who paid how much to whom,” said Kampars. Kadžulis, on the other hand, claims he understood the situation the following way: “because we provide state elections, we also have a duty to provide elections to them, because the state has already paid for it”.
In 2011 there was a contract put together for a symbolic amount – LVL 50. However, it was not sighed and no payment was done. No contracts were mentioned in the years that followed.
In eight years “SOAAR” provided 47 election procedures for 13 of Unity’s events – eight meetings and five congresses of its Riga branch. The businessman estimates the services provided to Unity cost around EUR 22 000. The party did not list the service in its accounts, nor did it register them as donations or services. The party’s report for 2013 does mention one position – congress organisation costs.
Also read: Week in Lithuania | LTG Link secures 200-million-euro loan for train purchase; MPs open debate on tighter regulation for foreign workers
Follow us on Facebook and X!