KNAB has concluded that almost half of political organizations committed violations of the Law on Financing Political Organizations (Parties) in their activities.
Unchanged since the previous period, KNAB most often found that political organizations did not pay for the purchases of goods and services within the legally prescribed 90 days from the day when the payment deadline came.
For non-observance of the 2022 report submission procedure, 12 parties have been held administratively liable and fined a total of 9,000 euros.
These are mostly small parties, but the exception is “Latvija first” represented in the Saeima, which was fined 700 euros, which has also been paid.
For non-compliance with the procedure for submitting donations received in 2022, KNAB has imposed one penalty – a fine of 200 euros on the “Platforma 21” party, but the administrative violation process against the Latvian Farmers’ Union has been terminated “due to the insignificance of the violation”.
KNAB imposed a 150-euro fine on the “Association of Latvian Regions” for failure to comply with the amount of donations received in 2022, but the administrative violation proceedings against the National Association and “Platform 21” were terminated “due to the insignificance of the violations”.
The National Union paid back the exceeded donation limit in the amount of 974 euros in the state budget, while the “Platforma 21” party paid back the exceeded donation limit in the amount of 309 euros.
The inspections found that four parties committed violations of the law, as a result of which decisions were made on the refund of illegally received donations to the state budget in the amount of 8,700 euros in total.
“United List”, the New Conservative Party, “Union of Latvian Regions” and “Sovereign Power” have been punished for such violations.
The office has checked the annual reports of 57 parties in total, including compliance of the use of state budget funding with the requirements of the law. As a result, the parties were brought to administrative responsibility, and fines totaling 5,660 euros were imposed on them.
Some of those punished were small parties, but the “United list” and “Latvia first” were also punished, while “Progressives” and “Stability” were warned so that the violations would not continue.
The Green Party of Latvia was fined 400 euros for some violation, “Vienotība” was fined 300 euros, but it was reduced to 150 euros, “Jaunajai Vienotība” was fined four times in the amount of 900 euros, and the Union of Greens and Farmers was fined 200 euros, which was reduced up to 100 euros.
In an examination against the National Union, it was concluded that the statute of limitations had expired in the case of the administrative violation process.
For the 13 political parties whose activities continue, debt obligations have entered into force for the decisions taken by KNAB on administrative fines and repayment of financial resources to the state budget in the total amount of 154,739 euros.
Most of these obligations belong to small parties, but the National Association is also on the list, the amount of repayable financial means is 12,381 euros.
KNAB notes that in 2022 nine political parties and their associations were allocated EUR 3.898 million in state budget funding, and almost the entire amount of this funding was used by political organizations.
During the inspections, KNAB found that 17 political organizations, including several political parties and their associations that received funding from the state budget, did not clear their debts within 90 days from the day when the payment deadline came.
In the sense of the law, this is equated to loans that political parties and their associations are prohibited from taking and that must be repaid in the state budget. Political organizations have accumulated a total of 377,402 euros in debt.
Also, KNAB found that in several cases political organizations that received state budget funds exceeded the permissible percentage limit for one target group, ie communication with society, by a total of 224,177 euros.
Certain political organizations have also not respected the limit of one minimum monthly salary in relation to the payment of the salary of a public official and the payment procedure for making advance payments for the purchase of goods and services.
According to the information provided by KNAB, political organizations received a total of 2.428 million euros in donations in 2022, while a total of 127,854 euros were paid to political organizations in joining fees and membership fees, which exceed one minimum monthly salary for the payer in a calendar year.
When checking this position in the annual reports, KNAB found insignificant violations – in several cases, the procedure for submitting the received donations was not followed, as well as in four cases, illegal financing was accepted, as a result of which the political organizations were ordered to repay 8,700 euros to the state budget.
