The large-scale spending of political parties ahead of the RD extraordinary elections raises questions

The above-mentioned amounts were for the placement of advertisements, which cost a total of around 1.3 million euros. However, the parties also had other expenses. The total expenditure exceeds 2.2 million euros. A large part of it is the state, ie the taxpayers’ money, which was received by the parties that ran in the last Saeima elections and won at least 2% of the votes. This is why the party declarations for certain items, which raise the question of whether they have not been overpaid and for what they have actually been paid for, are particularly noteworthy?

Election winners – “For Development / For!” and “Progressive” invested the most in the campaign – 469.8 thousand euros, of which 365.5 thousand from “For Development / For!” wallet and 104.2 thousand – from “Progressive”. In the second place with 360.7 thousand – “KPV LV”, which was not the case in the city council. Other parties have spent about 200 thousand and less. The least – the Action Party, which has declared 867 euros in expenses.

The large amount of money for “Development / For” is explained by the stretched campaign time, as the possible election dates were postponed several times, the campaign took a long time and the party does not consider that it was spent disproportionately. “For Development / About!” Pēteris Ņķelis, a member of the Board, points out that the function assigned to parties by the Satversme is to participate in elections and form state power. “And for the implementation of this function assigned in the Satversme, this budget has also been allocated, and it is fair and right here that the parties do it,” he says.

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KPV LV, in turn, explains its significant expenses by connecting at the last minute.

Almost half of the spent – 161,726 euros has been allocated by this party for the planning, preparation and organization of the election campaign. No other party has such a large amount.

Part of the party planning expenses has been included in the salaries of the campaign staff, but no one else reaches such an amount. “KPV LV” indicates that this heading includes a wide section.

“Contracts provided for both organization and preparation of materials, and these are often two inseparable processes. For example, filming will take place in one place and in another third place. Why – because the context is adapted to it (..) it is a complex set of measures, ”says Ralfs Nemiro, a member of the board of“ KPV LV ”, who was also a candidate for the position of the mayor of Riga.

Agreements on campaign planning and organization are mainly concluded with two companies – the media agency “Mindshare” and the advertising agency “Thumbs up media line”. The first is recognizable in the advertising market, but the second, judging by financial indicators, has not been active until 2020. Later in the correspondence, when asked about this fact and how the party found the company, Nemiro pointed out that the people they attracted were important to the party – KPV LV knew them. Who they are and the amount of the contract both do not disclose.

Political scientist Iveta Kažoka, who has studied party finances and participated in discussions on the relevant regulation as an expert, admits that what is seen in the declarations, especially in the case of “KPV LV”, raises questions.

Kaakoka’s attention has also been attracted, for example, by the relatively large expenses of the party “Sadarba” for the placement of advertisements in printed publications – almost 67 thousand euros out of a total of 106 spent on the placement of advertisements.

‘These examples are already sufficient to raise serious questions as to whether parties have declared the amounts of money actually spent and, if so, whether the details of these parties’ declarations should not be increased so that everyone can compare whether the amount of advertising or the amount of work adequate. And, of course, KNAB should look at this, ”thinks I. Kažoka.

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KNAB states that it will do so by checking the declarations of all parties. “The KNAB will examine and pay attention to each declaration submitted by the party, including each of these items, including whether state funds have been spent in accordance with the intended purpose and whether the service is not obviously overpaid (…). information when performing inspections and so on, it will depend on each individual case, ”explains Andris Donskis, Head of the Administrative Procedural Investigation Department of KNAB.

The Office for the Prevention and Combating of Corruption would also support greater detail in expenditure declarations so that the public can assess and compare these expenditures. Previously, however, there was no political support. However, Iveta Kažoka believes that the Ministry of Justice, which would be in charge of this law, could review the regulation. “I mean, at least, the spending that is spent on public funding, because some parties don’t have any special funding other than public funding,” she explains.

Iveta Kažoka estimates that in general the state budget funding has leveled out the possibilities of party campaigning and in terms of campaigns the competition has been more equal and is less dependent on donors.

True, parties that have no public money spent significantly less on the campaign. The exception is “Honor to Serve Riga”, allocating 207 thousand euros to the campaign. The leader of the party, Andris Ameriks, indicated that he could afford it because he had 400,000 euros in the party’s account. For the Saeima elections, when the allowed ceiling will be half a million euros, the lack of state funding will be one of the reasons to look for partners in order to be able to compete financially with state-funded parties.

Three parties have not submitted declarations within the specified deadline, and KNAB has started the administrative violation process.

Despite the recommendations of experts, the Ministry of Justice does not intend to push for changes to the law to make publicly available declarations more detailed. It points out that all data are available to the KNAB, but their disclosure should be seen in the context of personal data protection and the disclosure of specific agreements would also mean the disclosure of political parties’ pre-election campaign strategies.