Former Director of the State Chancellery Jānis Citskovskis on Tuesday in court denied his guilt in the charges brought against him in the so-called flights case of former Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš.
Citskovskis also told the court that he does not acknowledge the claimed damages in the amount of 89,382 euros.
Prosecutor Dāvids Gurevičs told journalists that Citskovskis, as former head of the State Chancellery, is accused of failing to control the use of state budget funds in the Prime Minister’s Office, as a result of which five special charter flights were ordered, exceeding the limits set by law and causing losses to the state of nearly 90,000 euros.
The prosecutor explained that the responsibility of all involved officials had been assessed during the criminal proceedings, and it was concluded that the losses were directly linked to Citskovskis’ inaction as head of the State Chancellery.
Meanwhile,
Citskovskis told journalists that responsibility should lie with those who made the decisions
and ordered the specific services, not with him.
The former top civil servant also stated that, according to the charges, he allegedly failed to control or revoke decisions made by others, although this was not legally possible, as the decisions were made by the Prime Minister and the orders were placed by his office.
He stressed that the key issue is whether a criminal offence actually occurred at all and whether the use of such special flights was lawful — a question that will be answered by the court.
At the beginning of the hearing, when asked by the judge whether he objected to audio and video recording of the hearing by the media, he replied that he had no objections, noting that “society must see what is happening in this court session.”
No other persons were invited to this hearing because, as the judge explained,
the further course of the case was not yet clear and not all related issues had been fully resolved.
During the hearing, Citskovskis’ defence lawyer Sanita Bokta-Strautmane pointed out that several case materials, including CD recordings, are not accessible to her and the accused because they have been submitted in the e-case system in a format they are unable to open.
Prosecutor Gurevičs explained that one of the flash drives that cannot be opened contains emails obtained during the investigation by the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (KNAB), and until now he had not received complaints about their inaccessibility to the defence.
The inaccessibility of the files was explained by their large volume — they could not be transferred onto a flash drive and were therefore stored in Blu-ray format, the equipment required to read which is reportedly available only to the prosecution.
The judge noted that a situation where evidence has been submitted but neither the court nor the defence can view or listen to it is unacceptable; therefore, the court will need to examine all volumes of the case to identify deficiencies.
The case consists of ten volumes.
At the next hearing, scheduled for the 19th of May at 10:00, witnesses are expected to be summoned. In total, 12 witnesses and one consultant are currently planned to be involved in the case.
It has already been reported that, according to information provided by the prosecution, Citskovskis is charged with failure to perform the duties of a public official, resulting in serious consequences. Initially, there was another person in the case with the right to defence, but that person’s status has since been changed and is now that of a witness.
According to the prosecution, the pre-trial investigation also assessed the possible responsibility of the former Prime Minister, several officials and employees of the State Chancellery and its structural unit — the Prime Minister’s Office — but ultimately concluded that the State Chancellery director, as head of the institution, was responsible for ensuring the lawful and efficient use of state budget funds in the procurement of services related to the Prime Minister’s foreign trips.
As a result of the person’s inaction, losses of 89,382 euros were caused to Latvia,
which under the law constitutes a criminal offence with serious consequences, the indictment states.
During the pre-trial criminal proceedings, it was established that in four of the Prime Minister’s foreign trips, the State Chancellery unlawfully ordered and paid for five special charter flights, despite the possibility of purchasing regular commercial flight tickets for members of the Prime Minister’s delegation in a timely manner.
By using regular commercial flights without additional expenses related to accommodation, the State Chancellery could have saved 89,382.90 euros of state budget funds. In assessing the damage caused to the state budget, the prosecution relied on the methodology applied in the State Audit Office’s audit of the use of special flights in the Prime Minister’s business trips and its conclusions regarding unlawful use of state budget funds and the potential savings from using regular commercial flights.
Although the prosecution did not question the Prime Minister’s authority to independently decide on the necessity of foreign trips, investigators concluded that the Director of the State Chancellery failed to ensure that the institution complied with the principles laid down in the Law on Prevention of Waste of Financial Resources and Property of a Public Person and with the restrictions set out in Cabinet regulations regarding the payment for travel-related services.
The prosecution also took into account that state budget funds used to pay for the special charter flights had been allocated under the 2022 state budget law for safe flights of the Prime Minister during the Covid-19 pandemic,
while the trips were organised after the state of emergency had ended.
Thus, the prosecution concluded that the Director of the State Chancellery failed to fulfil his statutory duties under the State Administration Structure Law, the Law on Budget and Financial Management, and other regulatory enactments to control the legality and efficiency of the use of state budget funds, and also failed to take action or issue orders to subordinate officials to cancel unlawfully ordered charter flights.
At the end of March 2024, the Prosecutor General’s Office initiated criminal proceedings and transferred the case to KNAB for investigation regarding possible large-scale misuse of funds related to the use of charter flights in the former Prime Minister’s trips. The case was later taken over by the prosecution.
Meanwhile, the State Audit Office indicated in its audit significantly higher unjustified expenditures than those stated in the charges. According to auditors, unlawful and uneconomical actions in organising Kariņš’ special flights resulted in approximately 545,000 euros in unjustified expenses for the budgets of Latvia and the Council of the European Union.
As noted by the State Audit Office, information obtained during the audit shows that decision-making and implementation regarding the use of special flights in foreign trips involved both then-Prime Minister Kariņš, his directly subordinate Prime Minister’s Office, and the State Chancellery.
At the time, the Prime Minister’s Office was headed by current Saeima deputy Jānis Patmalnieks,
while the State Chancellery was headed by Citskovskis.
Initially, in connection with the Kariņš flights scandal, Citskovskis was temporarily suspended from his position. Later, he left his job at the State Chancellery.
It has also been reported that, according to Citskovskis, his phone conversations were monitored for several months during the investigation, as reported by the TV3 programme Nekā personīga.
In an interview with the programme, Citskovskis stated that, upon reviewing the criminal case materials, he discovered that KNAB had listened to his conversations, including private conversations with family members.
According to Citskovskis, learning about the surveillance felt “disgusting,”
as he believes there was unequal treatment of different officials in the case. He accused law enforcement authorities of “cowardice” in investigating cases involving high-ranking state officials.
Citskovskis also claimed that KNAB, when requesting court permission to intercept phone conversations, relied on false information. He promised to make materials in his possession public during the upcoming trial and to point out what he considers injustices in the investigation.
Citskovskis asserted that decisions regarding specific flights in the Kariņš flights case were made by the Prime Minister’s Office, while the State Chancellery later had to explain itself to the prosecution, the State Audit Office, and the media. He stated that he was not involved in selecting routes or carriers.
He also claimed that after the scandal began,
pressure was exerted on him to take responsibility for the charter flights.
He said that in conversations with staff of Prime Minister Evika Siliņa’s office, he was made to understand that taking responsibility would be “in everyone’s interest” and that the situation would later be “resolved.”
The former official also admitted that, when previously responding to journalists, he had provided misleading information about additional funding intended for the Prime Minister’s special flights and staff remuneration. According to him, this presentation of information followed instructions from the Prime Minister’s Office.
At the same time, Citskovskis revealed in the interview that he had once, on his own decision, deleted a recording of a Crisis Management Council meeting on the introduction of Covid-19 restrictions. He claimed that he made this decision without external pressure, as the law does not require such meetings to be recorded.
It has been reported that Citskovskis served as Director of the State Chancellery from 2017 until July 2024. In connection with the scandal over former Prime Minister Kariņš’ flights, he was demoted in early July 2024. In protest, Citskovskis decided to leave his position at the State Chancellery.
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