A service investigation commission will be established to evaluate the procurement organised by the Baltic joint venture RB Rail for the supply of railway switches and rail expansion joints intended for the construction of the Rail Baltica railway line, according to information published on Latvia’s legislative portal.
The proposal to initiate the investigation was put forward by Prime Minister Evika Siliņa of New Unity. Although the issue has not yet been formally included in the government’s Tuesday agenda, it may still be added shortly before the meeting or at its start.
The commission will carry out a comprehensive assessment of whether the procurement procedure titled “Consolidated Supply of Railway Switches and Rail Expansion Joints for the Construction of the Rail Baltica Railway” was organised in compliance with applicable laws and regulations. It will also examine whether there has been any possible misuse of budget funds and assess the potential responsibility of the officials involved.
The commission is expected to be chaired by Artis Lapiņš, head of the Procurement Monitoring Bureau. Other members are expected to include Arina Andreičika, Director of the Internal Audit Department at the Ministry of Finance of Latvia; Raivis Bremšmits, State Secretary of the Ministry of Economics of Latvia; Aleksejs Remesovs, Director of the Legal Department at the Ministry of Justice of Latvia; Pēteris Vilks, Deputy Director of the State Chancellery of Latvia responsible for national development and cross-sectoral governance issues and head of the Cross-Sectoral Coordination Department; and Andulis Židkovs, State Secretary of the Ministry of Transport of Latvia. The secretariat of the commission will be provided by the Procurement Monitoring Bureau. If necessary, the chair of the commission will be able to invite experts and representatives from other institutions to participate in its work.
The commission will be required to prepare a report with its conclusions,
which the government is expected to review at a meeting scheduled for the 28th of April.
Investigative programme Nekā personīga on TV3 reported on the 8th of March that Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania had previously agreed to jointly procure materials needed for the Rail Baltica project in order to secure lower prices and attract larger suppliers. After several years of disputes over specifications, deadlines and other issues, the procurement procedures were finally completed. However, it later emerged that in the tender for railway switches a company that had initially submitted a financial offer 267 million euros lower was excluded from the process for what was described as a relatively formal reason.
According to RB Rail, the first phase of the Rail Baltica project could cost around 14.3 billion euros across the Baltic states, including approximately 5.5 billion euros in Latvia. At the same time, potential savings of up to 500 million euros could be achieved through the optimisation of technical solutions, along with other possible reductions in costs. The total cost of the project in the Baltics, according to the latest cost-benefit analysis, could reach 23.8 billion euros, whereas a previous analysis in 2017 had estimated the overall cost at 5.8 billion euros.
The Rail Baltica project aims to build a European-standard gauge railway line connecting Tallinn with the Lithuania–Poland border, enabling the Baltic states to be connected by rail with the rest of Europe. In total, an 870-kilometre railway line with a European gauge of 1,435 millimetres and a maximum train speed of 240 kilometres per hour is planned to be built across the Baltic region.
It has also been reported that in December 2024
the Prosecutor General’s Office of Latvia opened a criminal investigation into possible misconduct by officials
responsible for implementing the Rail Baltica project. According to the decision of the Prosecutor General on institutional jurisdiction, the case was transferred for investigation to the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (KNAB). The criminal proceedings concern suspicions that officials responsible for the implementation of the Rail Baltica project may have caused significant losses to the state budget in connection with the construction of Rail Baltica infrastructure. At the beginning of 2025, then Prosecutor General Juris Stukāns stated on Latvian Television that the investigation is also assessing the actions of politicians.
Read also: Latvia plans to assign new ministerial responsibilities under the Rail Baltica Implementation Law