There is no time to stage a witch hunt or search for irregularities in the work of the previous council leadership and the municipality, as that would prevent the implementation of new ideas, said the new Mayor of Jelgava, Mārtiņš Daģis (“For!”), in an interview with the LETA news agency. Daģis has replaced Andris Rāviņš (Union of Greens and Farmers), who had been in power for over 20 years.
At the same time, the new city council leadership has requested reports on budget expenditures to better prepare the next year’s budget.
“The first major task will be preparing next year’s budget, which will begin in September and October. To prepare for this, I have already issued an order for all institutions to submit a detailed report on budget spending for 2023, 2024, and the first six months of 2025,” the politician explained.
According to him, the goal is for the new council to gain a detailed understanding of how funds have been spent so far, and then make decisions on the new budget based on data.
When asked whether a comprehensive audit was planned, Daģis said that,
in essence, the request for budget expenditure reports is an audit.
“From my experience, there is no point in carrying out general large-scale audits, as they are not of high quality. Here, we will see the use of funds in each institution, each municipal company, and then, if we detect any irregularities or problems, we can investigate the issue in more depth,” the Jelgava City Council chairman stated.
He could not yet comment on where the municipality could save money, as the overall figures still need to be reviewed.
At the same time, he stressed that the goal of the new coalition is not to spend excessive time digging into the past, as there is a lot to do, and the coalition simply will not be able to accomplish new initiatives if it constantly investigates past matters.
“At the same time, we must ensure the proper use of budget funds, and if something improper ‘floats to the surface,’ of course we will respond. But staging some sort of witch hunt is certainly not my goal,” said Daģis.
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