Home » News » Jurmala City Council convenes an extraordinary meeting on the purchase of chairs for the Dzintari Concert Hall

Jurmala City Council convenes an extraordinary meeting on the purchase of chairs for the Dzintari Concert Hall

On Friday, July 10, at the request of two local government deputies, an extraordinary meeting of Jurmala City Council was convened in connection with violations of SIA “Dzintaru concert hall“the author of the application Rolands Parasigs-Parasiņš (NA) informed the portal” Delfi “.

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At the extraordinary meeting, the authors of the request ask the member of the board of SIA “Dzintaru koncertzāles” and the city council as the sole shareholder of the company to explain the situation related to the violations identified in the procurement. They also request that the Procurement Hall of the Concert Hall be suspended from its duties for a temporary period until the circumstances are fully clarified, and a temporary commission will be set up instead.

The deputies also ask the Audit and Revision Division of the City Council to explain the circumstances in which two invoices could be paid in the contract for the supply of goods concluded as a result of the procurement, one of which was for the merchant with whom the contract was not concluded.

The deputies have asked the council to suspend the persons involved in the case and to audit all the transactions concluded on behalf of the Dzintari Concert Hall, but in case of violations, to submit them to the institutions responsible for evaluation.

Politicians call on the City Council to decide on the submission of chair procurement documentation for evaluation to the Procurement Monitoring Bureau, at the same time calling on the City Council to revoke the procuration issued on April 23, 2015 to Denis Piļkēvičs, procurator of Dzintari Concert Hall.

The request to convene an extraordinary meeting of the City Council has been signed by deputies Parasigs-Parasiņš and Andris Čuda (NA), but the meeting will take place at 1 p.m.

Delphi has already reported that Jurmala City Council On July 9, the municipality requested an explanation from the management of SIA “Dzintaru koncertzāle” in connection with suspicions of a tax fraud scheme in the purchase of chairs for a concert hall in 2015. With such an agreement, the site also intends to apply to the State Revenue Service (AT).

The representative of the municipality Elita Cepurīte explained that the council currently has at its disposal only the information about the activities performed by the SRS that has been heard in the mass media. Therefore, the local government will address the SRS with a request to provide official information about the connection of the officials of “Dzintari Concert Hall” with this case and the status applied to them.

Without mentioning the names of the persons, the SRS confirmed on July 9 that three persons detained in connection with illegal activities in the supply of chairs to the concert hall released and subject to non-custodial measures. The SRS did not disclose the appropriate security measures, but confirmed that the suspects had shown initiative to cooperate with the investigation.

Deniss Piļkevičs, technical director and procurator of SIA “Dzintaru koncertzāle”, his wife and another person may be involved in the tax fraud scheme in the purchase of chairs.

According to the Criminal Procedure Law, non-custodial security measures include notification of change of residence, reporting to a police station at a specified time, prohibition to approach a certain person or place, prohibition of certain occupations, prohibition to leave the country, stay in a certain place and transfer to police supervision.

It has also been reported that officials of the SRS Tax and Customs Police Board (NMPP) in connection with the tax fraud scheme in July performed procedural activities in Dzintari Concert Hall.

During a series of investigative and operational activities, it was found that a criminal group had committed illegal activities in supplying chairs to the concert hall. The company made a fictitious delivery of chairs to a foreign company, which in turn delivered the chairs to a customer – a concert hall as a result of a public procurement tender, according to the SRS.

The SRS claims that the company declared value added tax (VAT) at a rate of 0%, instead of 21%, as it would be if the chairs were delivered to a Latvian business partner. This fact indicates that the transaction is fictitious – in order to avoid payment of taxes, as well as to hide the hidden relationship between the tenderer and the actual supplier of goods (chairs). The companies bought Lexus RX cars after the fictitious transaction for possible criminal proceeds, previously reported by the SRS.

In the tax fraud scheme opened by the SRS in the concert hall, the losses caused to the state in the form of unpaid taxes are a little more than 50,000 euros.

In the initiated criminal proceedings, the employees of the SRS NMPP conducted six searches in the residences, vehicles and offices of the persons involved in the criminal proceedings. Evidence relevant to the criminal proceedings was found and seized during the searches. Three people were detained. The Lexus RX has been seized to secure property.

According to Latvijas Televīzija, referring to the information at its disposal, the SRS detained the technical director and procurator of the Dzintari Concert Hall Piļkevičs, who was the head of the procurement commission during the procurement of chairs five years ago. His wife, through whom the company’s alleged criminal scheme was implemented, was also detained.

In connection with the activities of the criminal group, the SRS NMPP has initiated criminal proceedings under three articles of the Criminal Law – money laundering, evasion of taxes or similar payments and violation of accounting information regulations.

Information on the website of the Procurement Monitoring Bureau shows that SIA “Dzintaru koncertzāle” organized the procurement of new chairs in 2015. The Estonian company “Tooner Master” won the procurement with three tenderers with a contract price of 224,598 euros.

The sole owner of “Dzintari Concert Hall” is Jurmala City Council. The only member of the company’s board is Guntars Ķirsis, but the company’s procurator is Piļkēvičs.

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