Next week, on May 15 the government will likely continue discussing the question about the Pasazieru vilciens procurement of new trains worth 610 million EUR. There is also the possibility of the decision to cancel this massive procurement project, information at the Prietiek.com portal states.

«I hope that the train procurement project will not be cancelled», – was the only commentary, given by the non-party Minister of Transport Aivis Ronis on Tuesday. Meanwhile, sources in the government and at the Ministry of Transport prepare for the worst possible scenario – that the project soaked in the shadow of corruption will be cancelled.

The Ministry of Finance (MF) sent a letter to the Ministry of Transport, pointing out the financial risks, which would be taken up by the state if the deal with tender winner – the Spanish Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) continues. According to Pietiek.com, the MF warns that the deal with CAF puts Latvia at risk of sanctions as well as a repayment of the European Union (EU) co-financing amount. The amount is 25% of the 100 million EUR worth project – nearly 25 million EUR. No official acknowledgement of this was given on Tuesday, because the document flow between the MF and the MT on this issue has restricted access status.

The core of the problem, to which the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (CPCB) noted in December last year in a letter to the MT, as the state capital shareholder in Pasazieru vilciens, is the mismatch between the current costs for the train procurement project and the information, which Latvia gave in the beginning of the project, when applying for the money from EU funds.

The electric and diesel train procurement and maintenance prices of the winner of the tender, the Spanish CAF, conflict with the prices, stated in the EU Cohesion fund co-financing project. In the case of diesel trains, the actual price of these trains and their maintenance costs seem higher, and lower for electric trains. This could mean a decision of the EU fund to perform a finance correction in relation to Latvia in full accordance with the European Commission guidelines, stating, that there were violations of the normative acts in the EU co-financed procurement project. This could mean a 25% repayment of the 100 million EUR co-funding.

Ref: 102.109.109.1503