Eriks Kalnmeiers

The Prosecutor General’s office, led by Eriks Kalnmeiers, is not interested in checking how the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (CPCB) performed the investigation into Riga City Council member and Riga Free port Board member Olaf Pulks’ «football case», Pietiek reports with reference to the official response from the Prosecutor’s office.

It became known in the end of March that the RFP management allocated money from the port’s marketing budget for the contract with children’s and youth football school Albert, owned by Pulks, and where the politician’s son is training. The surfacing of this information was noted by Economy Minister Daniels Pavluts as one of the reasons why Pulks lost the government’s trust in representing state interests in the port.

Making a near investigation speed record, the CPCB concluded that Pulks did not, in fact, violate any regulations. «No evidence that RFP Board member had committed any violations of the Law on Conflict of Interest in Activities of Public Officials was uncovered during the investigation carried out by CPCB,»- said in the CPCB’s letter.

Even though Pulks publicly said how important it would be to publish the letter of CPCB, he never did it. The politician also never answered the invitation of the portal, which stated: «You, Mr. Pulks, of all people should know best that you should do everything in your power to convince the public how strict and objective the CPCB had been during its investigation. We expect that you will publically ask the CPCB to publish all the materials of this case.»

Meanwhile, Chief of CPCB Jaroslavs Strenchenoks continues avoiding a straight answer on whether or not to allow the public to meet all documents of the investigation to see if it was truly as objective as stated by the bureau.

The Prosecutor General’s office received the invitation to check the objectiveness of the CPCB’s investigation rather «reluctantly». The Prosecutor General’s office is only prepared to react to «direct reports about specific cases of CPCB operative’s acts of violating the law».

Ref: 102.109.109.2881