Latvian Political Monitor

I have a concrete proposal regarding the CSDD data leak. No compensation is needed, nor are forms and bureaucratic red tape. What is needed is to provide individuals with a single 'button' on the latvija.lv portal. It would be called - I want to change my personal code. Then you are informed where you can receive all related documents for free. Passport, eID, etc. The state has all the registries and knows the types of documents.

How does collective stupidity work? Now and then. Unchanged. Back then it was like this. Once the Police Academy was liquidated. As a result, investigators no longer received further education in pre-trial investigation on current challenges. The State Audit Office warned for years - Latvia's pre-trial investigation is being sunk by investigators' lack of professional qualifications and practical skills. Then came informative reports, the Kariņš government listened to recommendations, added prosecutors' wishes and created ... actually another legal education program, starting with ancient Greek philosophers and going through a full jurisprudence course. The state made a program called 'Pre-trial Investigation'. What does it teach? Philosophy of law and sociology. History of Latvian law. Constitutional law. Private law. Commercial law. Resolution of private law disputes. International and EU law. Nothing that addresses the problems the course was created for. Then, amid the construction cartel winds, they added that a training building worth 20 million must be built from non-existent money. As a result of institutional stupidity, they created a product, a course that did not solve the initial goal. Neither do investigators have time to attend a full master's program during working hours, nor does it solve the initial problem. Of 15 students, only 2 graduated. Now? Now they are advancing the Sports Fund. The initial idea was to attract private money to sports. Nice! Now? The initial idea has long disappeared. The idea in the Saeima has transformed away from the goal (there will be no private money), away from any sense. There was also such a point - to give money to sports so that they don't ask every year from funds for unforeseen circumstances (LNG). That too has disappeared. In fact, professional sports funding will come under the Olympic Committee. The fat cats will get more money, but grassroots and youth sports remain out in the cold. Meanwhile, requests from LNG to fund various bridges have not disappeared, they come to the Finance Ministry every week. I've long wanted to vomit. The Sports Fund freak continues its progress in the Saeima. Institutional stupidity.

@runasvirs @Apvienotais_ I would recommend checking the news date... 2023.

A baby is expected for the couple, and both want to get married at the registry office; they submit an application within the timeframe, etc. Conscientious young people. They only need to sign on the wedding day (which is a working day for the institution). No, they claim they can't! A call to management about the absurdity — still, they can. What priorities have been set in our country?

@axe_lv And? This is valid, nothing needs to be done there. The next number plate procurement is in 2029.

As we discussed with employers today. We have a bunch of laws and regulations that require allocating funding to various sectors as a certain % of GDP. And there, when adding up, about one billion euros is missing. For a long time. That is on top of the already existing deficit (borrowed money) of 2 billion per year. It will never be fulfilled, even theoretically impossible. Such regulations should be thrown in the trash. There is a list.

Information about the situation with power grid damage - I just spoke with the Lithuanian Prime Minister, who asked me how we managed to fix such a large number of damages so quickly? Yes, our emergency teams have indeed worked wonders, because from 284,000 households without electricity we've already reduced to 2,538 households. In Lithuania there were 260,000 without electricity and today there are still 30,000. Our ST and AST technicians of power lines have done a huge job to repair together 2,369 broken lines/damages. Imagine the number of trips! I thanked the Estonian Prime Minister for their help, who came to assist with their 20 experts. Next week we need to adopt significant amendments so that after such a storm there wouldn't be such a large scale of damages. One of the significant reasons is that the distance of trees from power lines is too close, many trees damaged AST and ST wires, which is unacceptable - the regulation must be changed. There are still significant decisions and error corrections/omissions that need to be addressed already next week at the extraordinary Cabinet of Ministers meeting on September 4 to improve our preparedness in crisis conditions. We cannot allow such a situation during winter.

I have not supported and do not support state funding intended for the Bridge federation. I want to remind that the aim of the government decision of 16 June was to support the hosting of international championships, not to allocate funding to one specific sport. The aim of the Cabinet of Ministers' decision was to help Latvia attract and host international sports championships, not to cover expenses after the fact for events already held for one specific sport. At the Cabinet meeting, both in the protocol and in the audio recording, it was clearly explained that such funding could be allocated in an open competition with all sports federations participating - in the future, not for an already ongoing event. I also have a specific question about the planned 14,000 euros for 'evaluation of competition results, as well as development of new, transparent and uniform criteria.' If this sum is needed to develop transparent and verifiable procurement criteria after the funding distribution, a legitimate question arises: on exactly what criteria were the 225,000 euros distributed this time? I believe that the Ministry of Education and Science must submit a calculation of this sum, the source of funding, and procurement documents, and must justify why this work cannot be done by officials of the Ministry of Education and Science and the Ministry of Economics, whom the Cabinet has already tasked with monitoring the competition results. I am not clear what the employees of the Ministry of Education and Science are doing, if an external evaluator needs to be hired for 14k EUR? This waste and the constant engagement of meaningless consultants must be stopped.

@mansviedoklis1 @vasarasraibumi no - the document has a very tendentious title and the annotation is ambiguous if one doesn't read the whole document.

@B03091315B @CSDD_LV @AndrejsDeeCee And how exactly do you imagine physically implementing that? What would be the technical solution? You want to know, CSDD clearly provides such an option.

I fully agree and already did exactly that. It remains to praise KEM the day before as these next produce an ambiguous headline for an innocent legal order. So the blame must be taken and corrected by @JanisVitenbergs and KEM. LSM, as a public media, should read the draft order to the end (there everything can be clearly understood if you go through the whole document) make sure what is meant by it, or contact KEM and ask. We are talking about quality public information, not running after headline clicks, because LSM does not need to run after advertisers' money.

Day No. 60 (TUESDAY) — cybersecurity, border, and order in state administration Tuesday started immediately with serious questions: 🛡️ Extraordinary meeting on cybersecurity ➖️ CSDD data security incident. I have already published a separate video about this, so I won't repeat it all. 🔗Links: [https://t.co/AXkr1kIlhC] 🏛️ Cabinet of Ministers meeting ➖️ VILKATIS — data on pushed-back border crossers shows that the operation is working. A migrant transporter was also detained at the time of committing the crime. ➖️ The second tunnel has been discovered on the border. For comparison — in Lithuania, a total of 7 tunnels have been discovered. This again shows with what methods they are trying to test and circumvent our border security. ➖️ We also advanced a draft law on the use of land for national defense needs, so that in acute and nationally important moments we could act quickly rather than get stuck in procedures. 👥 Prime Minister's office meeting and work planning ➖️ NGO Memorandum Council — the State Chancellery has prepared changes to the procedure. Payment for Council members for participation in meetings at the ministerial table will be abolished. I believe that participation in dialogue with the government cannot in itself become a paid position. ➖️ In the re-announced competition for the Director of the State Chancellery, where requirements were normalized and made more reasonable, 18 applications have already been received. In the previous competition there were only 6. That is already a good signal. I hope that among the candidates there will be capable people with the ambition not just to administer the system, but to help change it. 💪🇱🇻 I congratulate my office colleague and advisor @Bolevics on obtaining the honorary family status of 3 children – the birth of a daughter!!! We in Latvia need large, strong families. Health to the mother and children.

📍 The need to fix the procurement system so that we don't overpay for it; 📍 The municipal financial equalization model; 📍 Preparation for the next EU funds planning period. Today a valuable conversation about this with the chair of Kuldīga Municipality Council, Inese Astaševska https://t.co/uDu1lyP2It

@B03091315B Boards and councils must be addressed comprehensively with the change of governance of all state capital companies - you can't tackle each one individually - what's the point if the whole system needs to be changed. Work is being done on it and a solution will be offered already in September.

Hey, are you okay? I can't keep track of all the anger vectors.

@maijaroze_ @ast_lv @Sadalestikls If they don't clear, then electricity supply depends on wind whims, weather forecasts. Protection of high-voltage lines should be basic, but in offices such logic apparently doesn't work.

@maijaroze_ @ltvzinas @LRZinas There is such a thing that responsibility for LSM lies with the Saeima commission, chaired by @ineselibina, which addresses the SEPL matter. The government doesn't really have a say in public media (as the law stipulates, not the old entrenched practice).

@IvarsAuzins @Lato_Lapsa Rotation…

Ministries will have to submit an assessment of the usefulness of large public procurements by the end of September, the Cabinet of Ministers decided today following a proposal by @Finmin. Each ministry and each minister must be be able to clearly show that the planned procurements are useful and justified.