In the criminal case regarding supplies of inappropriate barbed wire for the Latvian-Belarusian border, charges are presented to the management of the Latvian Provision State Agency (NVA).
The publicly accessible schedule of Riga City Court indicates that NVA director Ramona Innusa is the accused. She was appointed as the director of NVA in summer 2021 by then the Minister of the Interior Sandis Ģirģens.
Among the accused is also NVA Infrastructure Development Department’s director Oskars Dzirkalis. He was once the board chairman of the Courthouse Agency.
NVA Administrative and Procurement Department manager Raimonds Dūcis is also an accused in this criminal case. Publicly available information indicates that
Dūcis was the chief specialist at the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau at the start of ‘00s.
He also previously served as advisor and senior expert in the Ministry of Defence.
NVA Legal Affairs Office’s Procurement Legal Support Department manager Baiba Dzene and DN Sistēmas co-owner Juris Teivāns are also accused in this criminal case.
The first court hearing of the case is scheduled for the 24th of April.
NVA and the aforementioned officials refrain from commenting on this whole situation, including whether or not they have been presented with security measures. The prosecution office refrains from revealing whether or not any of those people have been presented with any security measures.
Minister of the Interior Māris Kučinskis told LETA via his advisor Andrejs Vaivars that if the court finds the head of NVA guilty, appropriate measures will be taken.
«[…] As Minister of the Interior, I trust our law enforcement institutions,» said Kučinskis.
Without mentioning any names, the prosecution office announced to the media at the end of December 2022 that, following an investigation from the Internal Security Bureay, criminal charges were presented to officials over fraud and abuse of official power.
According to the prosecution office, between the 20th of October 2021 and the 6th of December, the accused businessman, acting in the interest of their company and in cooperation with four NVA officials, supplied the agency with 25 000 m of Concertina CBT-60 barbed wire for the project regarding construction of border infrastructure on the Latvian-Belarusian border, knowing in advance that the supplied barbed wire does not meet the requirements listed by NVA.
The prosecution believes the accused defrauded EUR 373 602 from NVA, which is the funding the agency received from the state budget programme for emergencies.
The court also received details of the procedure regarding application of a coercive measure on a legal person, as evidence acquired during the pre-trial investigation indicate that the accused private person committed fraud in the interest of a company. The case was submitted to Riga City Court.
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