The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development (VARAM), assessing the violations of the chairman of the Rēzekne council and the council in budget planning, will also consider the possibility of dismissing the entire Rēzekne council, not only its chairman Aleksandras Bartaševičus (“Together with Latvia”), the new Latvian Radio program “Krustpunktā” admitted today Minister of Environmental Protection and Regional Development Inga Bērziņa (JV).
The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development (VARAM), assessing the violations of the chairman of the Rēzekne council and the council in budget planning, will also consider the possibility of dismissing the entire Rēzekne council, not only its chairman Aleksandras Bartaševičus (“Together with Latvia”), the new Latvian Radio program “Krustpunktā” admitted today Minister of Environmental Protection and Regional Development Inga Bērziņa (JV).
She explained that approving the budget is a collective decision. Therefore, it is reasonable to assess whether the entire Rēzekne council should not be released.
She emphasized that
work on solving this issue is going on intensively and the decision will not be delayed. However, the decision will be prepared as correctly as possible, taking into account the legal proceedings that may follow.
The decision on Rēzekne council or Bartasevič will be made by the end of the year. In Beržina’s opinion, November is the last time when this decision should be made.
The minister added that currently Bartašević himself is forced to answer for what he did in the budget, that the budget was planned irresponsibly. He has to deal with this situation himself at the moment and explain to people why a service will not be provided or an unpaid salary, as well as the fact that a position in the budget needs to be reduced.
In the Minister’s view,
it is impossible that this situation would end with nothing, that Bartašević or the council would not be fired and would remain in their places.
As reported, VARAM has received a reply letter from the chairman of Rēzekne council. In it, Bartašević accuses both VARAM and the Ministry of Finance (FM) of hasty and evidence-based decisions, as well as repeats the excuses that have been publicly expressed several times before.
Bartaševičs emphasizes that, despite the public statements of VARAM and FM regarding Rēzekne’s unwillingness to cooperate, failure to provide information or provision of false information, the municipality of Rēzekne “has provided answers since the beginning of August, complying with the established deadlines and requirements”. Likewise, the head of the municipality expresses in the letter that he expects “constructive action aimed at cooperation and problem solving” from both VARAM and the FM.
In the opinion of the chairman of the Rēzekne council, the way VARAM has formulated the request for an explanation “unequivocally indicates that accepting an explanation from me is only a formal fulfillment of the law” and the process of removal from office has been started based “only on the assumptions made by the ministry”, but without “evidence for violations of specific regulatory acts”.
The decision on the suspension could be evaluated if the current State Control audit and FM financial audit of the Rēzekne city municipality reveal specific violations of the law committed by Bartašević as the head of the municipality, which, in addition, “directly caused the specific financial difficulties in the Rēzekne city municipality”, says the head of the municipality.
In the part of the letter describing the financial situation, Bartasevičs states that during the 2023 budget planning period, it was found that the budget deficit reached 13 million euros and it was decided to reduce the investment portion.
The letter reiterates previously publicly announced explanations about the increase in costs, emphasizing that the amount of the municipality’s liabilities has “significantly increased due to reasons independent of the municipality’s actions”.
As reported, the previous Minister of Environmental Protection and Regional Development Māris Sprindžuks (AS) started the procedure to suspend Rēzekne Mayor Bartasevičs in September, but the final decision on whether to dismiss Rēzekne Mayor will have to be made by Bērziņa.
