RIGA, April 8. /TASS/. Suspended Riga Mayor Nils Usakovs has dismissed the demand by Minister for Environmental Protection and Regional Development Juris Puce to launch a probe against him into alleged fraud.
"If the minister believes that compensation for free pass, for example for pupils, is fraud, it is difficult to add something here," the politician wrote on his Facebook page. "A person, who created his party using the funds from gambling business, should be imagining fraud everywhere. I’m waiting for accusations that free meals in kindergartens will be also equal to a crime."
Usakovs explained that each year starting from 2010 the Riga Duma has been expanding the list of passengers, who enjoy free pass or significant discounts. "The expenses on this travel are certainly compensated by the Riga Duma," Usakovs said. "This has been done and is being done either in the form of allowances or investments in capital. Both forms are logical and allowed by the law."
Earlier on Monday, Latvia’s Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development turned to the republic’s prosecutors asking them to check whether the activity of the dismissed Riga mayor was fraudulent or this was inaction. The minister stressed that the decision on Usakovs’ suspension was not political because the exposed violations were very serious and had been committed several times.
The minister’s decision on dismissing the Riga mayor was published in Latvia’s official newspaper Latvijas Vestnesis. Usakovs announced plans to challenge this in court. The mayor was accused of violations related to the alleged cooperation between the city and the Rigas Satiksme transportation company, and in particular, there were inconsistencies in a report on the authorized capital of the Riga transportation enterprise and budget injections into it.
Usakovs, as the Riga mayor and a Rigas Satiksme shareholder, is fully responsible for all inconsistencies in the report, it says. Puce claimed that Usakovs had disrupted the work of the local City Council causing losses of tens of millions of euro.
Usakovs is the first ethnic Russian to be elected mayor of Riga in 2009.
On January 30, the Latvian Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau searched the Riga mayor’s office and residence as part of a criminal investigation of the Rigas Satiksme transportation company that has been mired in a corruption scandal since the end of 2018. Usakovs said that he hadn’t committed any crime or criminal offences. According to him, no investigation was launched against him and no suspicions were put forward. Latvian nationalists demanded that he resign, however, the politician retained his position in office.
Following these events, Puce said that his ministry had begun investigating the Riga City Council. On March 21, the ministry reported that the probe had been completed and a number of possible violations had been identified, while the Riga mayor had to provide explanations about these findings. In accordance with Latvian law, the Regional Development Minister can dismiss the mayor or initiate the dissolution of the City Council. Earlier, Usakovs repeatedly vowed that if an illegal decision on his discharge was taken, he would appeal in court.