“Ploka was driven to despair by all of this. She had turned to the State Audit Office with a request to carry out an audit of the SIF. Zaiga [Pūce–ed.] left and that was a good moment. The SAO said ‘no’, and I think that one of the reasons is that Zitmane is the state auditor’s wife. If they start investigating there, it may turn out that she is ‘up to her elbows in blood’, because she understands nothing about the media. Those evaluators get together there and hand out that money to their girlfriends based on whether they like them or not.” This is the information that, after a recent publication, Inc. received from an official close to the sector.
The State Revenue Service officials’ declaration database shows that for several years Marita Zitmane has submitted her declaration as a member of the Republic of Latvia State Audit Office commission, yet she cannot be found among the staff on the SAO website. At the same time, it can be seen that Zitmane has received a salary from the Society Integration Fund (SIF) as a member of the evaluation commission (see photo at the end of the article). Of course, the state auditor is indicated in the declaration as her spouse.
In the spring, Marita Zitmane took part in a court hearing in which “Dienas žurnāli” is in litigation against the SIF. Zitmane has the status of a witness in the case and stated in court that she is not familiar with market prices and does not know the costs; therefore, when evaluating projects, she relied on the opinion of the other evaluator and accordingly reduced the number of points under the criterion concerning project expenses. Zitmane also stated that she had not previously searched for or familiarized herself with market data and that she assessed the applications more from the standpoint of a subjective evaluator rather than in line with market data.
The Prime Minister’s Parliamentary Secretary Karina Ploka and Communications Adviser Anna Ūdre did not answer Inc.’s question as to whether the Prime Minister had requested an evaluation of the SIF, but the State Audit Office does not deny this, noting that “Mrs Ploka once urged the State Audit Office to carry out an audit at the Society Integration Fund in order to provide the State Audit Office’s opinion on one specific grant awarded by the fund to one association. Since the State Audit Office plans its audit work in advance and based on comprehensively assessed risks, we have limited possibilities to carry out such checks of specific projects or transactions. At the time the initiative was expressed, there was no audit under way at the State Audit Office within the framework of which we could examine the issue raised by Mrs Ploka.”
However, the SAO also pointed out that relatively recently it audited the use of funds allocated for media support during the Covid-19 pandemic, where it concluded that the SIF should review and improve the documentation of the project evaluation and monitoring process, including setting mandatory requirements for justifying the scores awarded. The SAO also pointed out in its recommendations that the SIF should “consider the possibility of recovering from funding recipients those costs that do not comply with the terms of the competition rules and the contract”. Whether this has been done is not clear.
It should also be noted that the State Audit Office has set up a Public Advisory Council, which includes a number of representatives of governmental and non-governmental organisations, among them, for example, Anda Rožukalne, a lecturer at the RSU Faculty of Communication, who has already litigated in two instances and lost to “Mediju nams” (nra.lv) and SIA Cocoon (puaro.lv). The SAO Public Advisory Council also includes a representative of the “PROVIDUS” centre. This organisation also regularly receives funding from the SIF.
Information on the SAO website indicates that the SAO Advisory Council was established with the aim of promoting public involvement in determining audit topics, and in audit planning and implementation.
Part of the declaration of the state auditor’s wife, Marita Zitmane:
Could all of these circumstances taken together indicate the independence of the State Audit Office? That is a rhetorical question.
Originally published at https://inc-baltics.com/valsts-kontrolei-varetu-but-grutibas-revidet-maf-jo-mediju-projektu-vertesana-piedalas-valsts-kontroliera-sieva/
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