Officials of the Ministry of Education and Science (Ministry of Education) apparently cannot find information in their own domain about which schools received the 48,000 purchased computers, for whose procurement process Minister Dace Melbārde at the end of February initiated an internal investigation.
Inc. has already reported that the Ministry of Education has found a completely new way to exclude from the tender a company that was able to provide the required computer deliveries at the lowest price, but despite this the Ministry of Education bought much more expensive computers from another supplier. For part of the computers, the configuration differed only by the presence of a wired computer mouse which, judging by the price difference, costs 84 euros more per unit.
Several days after the article was published, on February 27, Inc. contacted the Ministry of Education’s Strategic Communication and Public Participation Division, where five people work, requesting a list of the schools that received the more expensive computers, but received no reply. A week later, on March 5, another email was sent requesting information on when the above-mentioned list of schools could be received, but there was no response to this request either.
Meanwhile, today, March 13, when asked whether it is known why the Ministry of Education is not responding to the request to send the list of schools, and whether this is a decision by officials or an instruction from the minister’s office, the senior consultant of the mentioned division, Ivars Jakovels, stated: “I am not dealing with this issue; as far as I know, colleagues are waiting for information from the responsible department. My area of responsibility is communication on sports policy issues.”
Thus, it can be concluded that for two weeks the ministry has either been unable to find the list of schools that received the more expensive computers, or does not wish to provide this information.
The five-person division at the Ministry of Education is headed by Linda Jēkabsone – Gavala. She had already come into Inc.’s view in earlier articles about the Society Integration Fund (SIF) funding for various NGOs. Linda Jēkabsone – Gavala started working at the Ministry of Education in January of this year, but previously, from 2022 to 2024, she worked at the organization “Gribu palīdzēt bēgļiem” (“I Want to Help Refugees”), where she also served as a board member at the same time as the Minister of Culture, Agnese Lāce, and, for example, the daughter of the co-owner of the magazine IR, Pauls Raudseps – Ieva Raudsepa – were on the organization’s board. From 2023 to 2025, “Gribu palīdzēt bēgļiem” received a total of 184,500 euros from SIF.
Jēkabsone – Gavala worked at “Gribu palīdzēt bēgļiem” during the same period as Ieva Raubiško and left her job roughly at the same time when the prosecutor’s office charged Raubiško with organizing illegal border crossings. At the same time, she had managed to secure a position at SIF as deputy chair of the council, where she worked for one year and four months.
However, after leaving “Gribu palīdzēt bēgļiem”, Jēkabsone – Gavala immediately found a job at the “Latvijas Pilsoniskā alianse” (“Latvian Civic Alliance”) – an association to which the Cabinet of Ministers pays 200,000 euros per year for organizing 13 meetings within the framework of “Memorandum Council” sessions.
Lursoft information shows that Jēkabsone – Gavala currently serves on the board of the association “Seiba – atbalsts Gvatemalas bērniem” (“Seiba – Support for Guatemalan Children”), where three people in total are on the board: the aforementioned head of the Ministry of Education division, Valdis Jākobsons, and the Secretary-General of the Saeima Administration, Lelde Rāfelde.
Originally published at https://inc-baltics.com/izm-nevar-atrast-skolu-sarakstu-kuram-piegadati-dargie-datori/
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