Fact check of candidates for the position of Riga mayor. Nemiro, Kuzins and Stack / Article / LSM.lv

KPV LV and Ralfs Nemiro

Leader of the party KPV LV list Ralph Nemiro accused the municipality of failing to absorb the money. He said:

“If we look at large projects, a large part of the money that would be allocated for such projects has not been absorbed in Riga at all. It turns out the money is there, just can’t take it. ”

The response of the Central Financial Contracts Agency (CFLA) to “Re: Check” shows that the success of the municipality cannot be measured so unequivocally. Namely, the council currently receives funding for the implementation of 46 projects, which cost a total of more than 225 million euros. Most, 35 projects, have already been completed. The CFLA also emphasizes that many large and complex projects are managed by the municipality. The evaluation of the institution includes both success stories and projects, the implementation of which is not as smooth as planned, but in general the success of the council is “assessed similarly to other local governments”.

“The funds for the acquisition of construction projects have not been sufficiently absorbed,” Nemiro also pointed out in a conversation with Re: Check. However, he immediately added that “this has been objectively possible or impossible from time to time”, because there were risks of litigation, contestation. However, the politician refused to name specific construction projects, which were talked about: “This is not a story about one, the second or the third project. It does not matter. What matters is the amount of money that can be used to improve Riga. ” Nemiro also agreed that Riga does not stand out against the background of other municipalities. However, he spoke about the capacity of Riga and pointed out that in a small region “there may be objective reasons, (..) The administrative apparatus in Riga is still large enough to try to implement such projects.”

Nemiro also criticized the cost of the e-ticket system:

“If we look at” Rīgas Satiksmi “, which is probably the biggest child of sorrow, then 20,000 on the map of Riga – in fact, such a ticket costs about 12 buses. So how long have we lived? ”

Nemiro admitted that he was satisfied with the amount of money – he wanted to say that 20 million euros had been spent for the company “Rīgas karte”.

In recent years, the Riga Card has actually paid a little more than 20 million euros every year. Of these, more than 17 million euros for e-ticket maintenance. However, Re: Check was also interested in the politician’s calculations regarding bus costs.

In recent years’ purchases “Riga traffic“Although he paid about 300 thousand euros for one bus.” Re: Check asked Nemiro how much one bus costs. He also said that the cost of the bus is about 300 thousand euros. “I divided 20 million by 300 thousand – that’s a plus, minus 13 buses. ” After questioning, Nemiro reiterated that 12-13 buses can be bought for 20 million, but this is not true. During the conversation, it was added that 12 buses each worth 300,000 thousand euros would cost a total of 3.6 million euros, instead of, according to the politician, 20 million. In response, Nemiro said: “There is no 20 million, because we need the card itself to some extent (..) I took into account that we can buy another 12-13 buses and also maintain some kind of ticket control system.”

The candidate for the position of mayor of KPV LV also talked about the expenses of Rigans for housing management.

“Why do doors cost 12,000 if they could cost 1,200 with all the inserts? So 10 times larger estimates are submitted and you can see where those funds are.”

“Re: Check” could not find the case named by the politician in media publications, so we asked Nemiro about it. He replied that the case was known personally. This happened to Nemiro’s relatives living in Āgenskalns. “The exact address is not my property, so I am not authorized to comment specifically on it.”

“The New Harmony” and Jānis Kuzins

The first issue of the party “New Harmony” is the entrepreneur Tatiana Kargina. At her current occupation, she has indicated that she is a candidate for the position of mayor of Riga, but a list of Latvian radio represented by Jānis Kuzins. Explaining how to finance the party’s promises, he pointed out that we overpay for the “Rīgas satiksme” ticket system or e-ticket:

“We spend 30 million on e-tickets. This is money that goes to waste. ”

He exaggerates the cost of the system by about 13 million – about 17 million euros are spent on an e-ticket every year. However, Kuzin is right that we pay many times more than in Vilnius and Tallinn. Spoken in the mediathat the Riga public transport ticket system costs about fifteen times more expensive.

Kuzin told Re: Check that the information was found in publicly available sources, but did not remember exactly where. “I didn’t take it out of the blue, I took it from the media.”

Kuzin also said that Riga’s payments to the municipal equalization fund should be canceled:

“Payments to the equalization fund must be abolished, this applies not only to Riga, but to all large cities. Because the administrative-territorial reform was created so that the counties can support themselves. ”

First, the municipality itself cannot cancel the contributions to the municipal financial equalization fund. Secondly, the administrative-territorial reform (ATR) is designed to strengthen the capacity of local governments, but this does not mean that the redistribution of funding among local governments is planned to be eliminated. ATR the law it is intended to continue beyond the entry into force of the reform. How to indicated by the system will be reformed.

Kuzin pointed out that he had talked not only about Riga, but in general about the abolition of payments for large cities. He believes that the system should change immediately: “It cannot be that we seem to be moving forward, but leaving something from ancient times.” On the other hand, regarding the possibility of local governments to cancel payments to the equalization fund, he pointed out that they can encourage changes in laws through the Union of Local Governments of Latvia or the Association of Large Cities, as well as to apply to the Constitutional Court.

In an interview with Latvijas Radio, Kuzins also pointed out that the Ministry of Defense should “finally get involved” in solving the Covid-19 crisis. He spoke about the transformation of the building for the concert hall at 2 Elizabetes Street into a hospital:

“It seems to me that the Ministry of Defense should finally get involved as well. Because, as for this here Elizabetes Street 2, the former party house .. then we propose that the Ministry of Defense funded from its budget… to restore what was historic once, well once was, for example, an army hospital. The Ministry of Defense has a budget large enough to understand that health risks are also a sufficient threat to the state. ”

The Army Hospital in Riga used to be, but not close to, Elizabetes Street 2, which is the former building of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and is now the government has decided to build an acoustic concert hall. Kuzin told Re: Check that he mentioned the building on Elizabetes Street because, in his opinion, there should be a hospital or a hospital of the Ministry of Defense, where army personnel and in some cases residents with infectious diseases could be treated. However, what Kuzin said is completely out of context, because the defense budget has nothing to do with the budget of the Riga municipality, and the decision to build a concert hall has also been made by the government and not by the Riga City Council.

“For Development / About!”, “Progressive » and Mārtiņš Staķis

Party associations “For Development / For!” and the party “Progressive” mayoral candidate Mārtiņš Staķis expressedthat wages in the social sector should be increased and said:

“We already have 11,000 people in home care, and if during the first Covid crisis many volunteers went to these people, then it is still the task of the municipality, so we must be ready for this in the first place. (..) We cannot fail to increase wages in this sector. ”

According to Staķis, it was clear that the municipality could not cope with home care, so volunteers were involved. Similarly, he said in a conversation with Re: Check: “If this service is needed in greater quantities than it was during the Covid crisis, then it could only be done with the help of volunteers, at least the volunteers were ready to get involved and help.” However, according to the politician, the municipality must be ready to provide such a service itself.

The stacker is right about the number of people receiving the service, but the statement that the volunteers do the work of the municipality is questionable. RD Welfare Department Representative Lita Brice “Re: Check” said that service provision had not stopped or declined for a moment during the crisis. Caregivers have continued to go to people as before. Brice said that there is no queue for the service at the moment. The service is available to people who have objective difficulties in caring for themselves due to age or functional impairment. Human abilities are evaluated by a social work specialist.

Out of 11 thousand last year, more than six thousand people received care at home, but almost another five thousand received material support so that care could be provided by an individual chosen by the client. More than 700 people also received the services of the so-called safety button, which provides continuous communication and assistance 24 hours a day for people who may become helpless due to age or functional impairment. A few hundred people would also receive hot lunch delivery and assistant services.

In turn, the volunteers, through the “Latvian Red Cross and Latvian Samaritans” association, helped with food delivery to people who can not go to the store due to the epidemiological situation, and left it at the door. The municipality was not directly involved in the organization of volunteer work.

The municipality provides home care through outsourcing, which is purchased from care institutions. Brice said that the salary of employees is really low, often it does not exceed the minimum wage. The municipality could improve the situation by purchasing the service at a higher price.

Stack also talked about which party has most actively tried to achieve a change of leadership in Riga. He said:

“I think so [2017.gada RD vēlēšanās] the parties would have gone with more confidence, and there was only one such party – it was the Latvian Development Party, which even went with the setting “Let’s gas the Nile” – I think it would have succeeded. “

The call for the overthrow of former Mayor Nils Ushakovs (“Harmony”) before the previous elections, both distributed by politician Mārtiņš Bondars, which at that time was the party “Union of Latvian Regions” (LRA) member of the board, although the party ran in the elections together with the party “Latvian Development”. In a conversation with Re: Check, Stack acknowledged that “it would be more correct for me to say [ka] it was the association “Latvijas Attīstība” together with the “Association of Regions”. “

Also, “Latvijas Attīstība” was not the only party that called for a change in the ruling coalition in the City Council. At the time, government coalition parties such as agreed not to cooperate with “Saskaņu” after the elections. Steak Re: Check said how he felt: “At least I had a feeling that at the time, only that one party association [“Latvijas attīstībai”, LRA] was really serious about doing it. ”

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