This year’s budget provided for contingencies of € 23.48 million, but due to the crisis caused by Covid-19, the government decided to increase funding for the program to € 625 million.
In the third quarter of this year, 79 requests for contingency funds were approved for a total of 257,069,112 euros.
The largest amount of contingency funds in the second quarter of this year was allocated to the Ministry of Transport – 75.66 million euros. Almost half of them have been allocated for the implementation of road projects, as well as a large part has been allocated for the reimbursement of expenses for the use of the state public railway infrastructure for passenger transport.
In the third quarter of this year, 75.12 million euros were allocated to the Ministry of Economics. These funds are mainly intended to mitigate the negative effects of Covid-19 on business, including by channeling funds to support exporting companies and the tourism sector.
In the third quarter, € 24.99 million was allocated to the Ministry of Welfare, mainly to ensure the payment of unemployment benefits.
The Ministry of Health was allocated 19.56 million euros, which was used for the purchase of personal protective equipment and payment for doctors.
In the third quarter, the Ministry of Education and Science received EUR 17.63 million from contingency funds, part of which was allocated to the establishment of a national research program on Covid-19 mitigation research to reduce the negative impact of the Covid-19 crisis on the sports sector. as well as to improve the technological provision in general education institutions.
EUR 14.29 million was allocated to the Ministry of Agriculture, mainly to farmers affected by the Covid-19 crisis.
The Ministry of Culture, in its turn, was allocated 10.28 million euros, which was directed to the State Cultural Capital Fund for the development of cultural offer, the National Cinema Center for the production of new Latvian film series.
The budget program “Contingency Funds” is intended to cover unforeseen expenses for the prevention of the consequences of disasters and natural disasters, compensation for losses caused by them, provision of public administration tasks in case of non-fulfillment of contractual obligations and collection or withholding of contractual penalties or interest non-compliance, as well as other contingencies and measures of special national importance.
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