Officials, accountants, members of procurement commissions of the rail project Rail Baltica implementer AS RB Rail and their spouses have been insured since the very founding of the company in 2014, Inc. has found out following the previous publication. However, the price of insurance has increased sharply after certain events, and finally competition between insurers has also decreased.
Given that after Inc.’s previous publication part of the public reacted to it by normalizing such an insurance policy, pointing out that it is standard practice worldwide, we set out to investigate how long such insurance has been in place for AS RB Rail officials and other employees. The data of the Public Procurement Monitoring Bureau (IUB) show policies purchased since 2021, but most likely this is because it was the first year when the price of the policy started to exceed 10 thousand euros. Before that, information about this type of procurement can be found only on the Rail Baltica website, yet it only states that such insurance existed, without specifying the contract terms.
Some contract information can also be found in the EIS system. For example, the insurance policy purchased in 2020 already included a retroactive date from 2014, i.e., from the moment AS RB Rail was founded. At that time, the price of the policy was 9,848 euros. Before that, in 2019, the policy cost 9,950 euros and it also included a retroactive date. This suggests that the policy has always had a retroactive date, only the period used to be shorter, and it has operated on the principle that it must be in force and applicable to the entire operating period of RB Rail since 2014.
Thus, when buying the policy in 2015, the retroactive date covered only a few months, in 2016 – a year and a few months, in 2017 – two years and a few months, in 2018 – three years, until finally this year the retroactive period is 12 years. As a result, with each passing year participation in such a tender has become increasingly unattractive for insurers, and the winner turned out to be the same company as in previous years – Compensa. Only in 2018 was the tender for the opportunity to insure RB Rail officials won by AIG Europe; in all other years it was taken on by Compensa.
Meanwhile, the insurance price, entirely in line with business logic, has become more expensive as obvious risks have emerged. Thus, for example, when buying the policy in 2023, it cost 19,999 euros and the maximum compensation limit was 10 million euros, but after in the spring of 2024 the MP Andris Kulbergs (AS) started making a fuss about the project’s financing and its use, and a Saeima Parliamentary Investigation Commission was established, the price of the insurance policy increased by 75% and already cost 35,141 euros (results announced in May), and the compensation limit was increased to 20 million euros.
In the following year, i.e., 2024, the insurance was again purchased from Compensa, but it was cheaper – 27,444 euros, unlike in 2025, when it again became more expensive. First, on 17 January 2025, a procurement was announced whose documentation stated that the approximate contract price could be 45 thousand euros, but none of the insurers applied. Therefore, a negotiated procedure without prior publication was later announced, and Compensa won it for 59,600 euros.
This negotiated procedure might rather confirm that competition is being restricted by purchasing a policy with a retroactive date. Thus, Compensa has had an obvious advantage, having insured RB Rail officials every year, being more familiar with the situation and, since 2019, already having received 118,049 euros in insurance premiums without any payouts, while for the other bidder who eventually submitted an offer – SIA R&D Apdrošināšanas brokers – many circumstances may not have been known. Thus Compensa could offer a policy for 59,600 euros, while the other bidder – for 110 thousand euros.
In 2025, as already indicated in the previous Inc. publication, the documentation stated that some AS RB Rail management board member/chair in the first half of the year had provided explanations to the Anti-Corruption Bureau regarding the period of activity from 2015 to 2018. Although the specific official was not named, Lursoft data show that the only management board member/chair who was on the company’s board for the entire aforementioned period and therefore could testify about that time was Baiba Rubesa. She did not answer Inc.’s question about this fact, however, compared with a year earlier the price of the insurance policy has more than doubled.
Meanwhile, former RB Rail management board member Kitija Gruškevica, who in 2024 told LSM that the company’s management board is liable with all its property and the responsibility is great, when asked whether she did not know that the liability was insured, told Inc. that she did know, but added: “At the same time, it is important to emphasize that the decisions taken by the management board on a daily basis concern financial volumes that are many times larger than any insurance limits. Therefore, in such positions insurance is more a standard risk management instrument than actual ‘protection’ against liability for decisions taken. The liability of management board members in the Rail Baltica project is very high both legally and professionally, regardless of the existence of insurance.” At the same time, it should be noted that AS RB Rail buys not only the insurance itself, but also consultancy on how best to purchase the insurance. Thus, in 2025 an agreement was concluded for 40,000 euros over two years with SIA Marsh for “provision of insurance-related consulting services”.
Originally published at https://inc-baltics.com/rb-rail-amatpersonu-apdrosinasana-sadardzinajusies-pec-izmeklesanas-komisijas-izveides-un-iespejams-baibas-rubesas-knab-apmeklejuma/
Like
Love
Happy
Haha
Sad
