RIGA, June 17 (LETA) - Welfare Minister Gatis Eglitis (New Conservative Party) during a meeting with Gints Kaminskis, leader of the Latvian Association of Local and Regional Governments (LPS), promised a transparent and fair distribution of funding to Latvia's municipalities. 

LPS spokeswoman Ella Petermane told LETA that the welfare minister had invited the association's representatives for a meeting to dispel concerns about the dominance of political interests in matters concerning financial allocations to local governments. 

The meeting between Eglitis and Kaminskis focused on common cooperation areas and pressing issues in the sphere of welfare. 

"I was reassured by the minister that the distribution of funding to local governments will be fair and transparent and not based on particular political interests, and that this issue will receive increased attention. Every member of society and also media must follow what funding absorption tenders are being organized and who participates in them, and sound the alarm in cases where there are suspicions of dishonest activity," Kaminskis said. 

As reported, the Saeima Mandate, Ethics and Submissions Committee gave Eglitis a reprimand for his recent tweet in which he implies that when it comes to distributing European Union funding, Latvia's ruling parties will "primarily take care of their own municipalities".

The new minister was reprimanded for violating Article 8 of Saeima's Code of Ethics, which stipulates that MPs may not make statements or support actions that may be interpreted as instigation to illegal activities.

As reported, Eglitis said in his Twitter post that the Latvian Alliance of Regions, the Union of Greens and Farmers and Harmony should not become too happy about their victories in local elections because "the June 3 restart of the government means that the large government funds, EU funds and European Recovery and Resilience Facility will be controlled by the four coalition parties (National Alliance, New Conservative Party, New Unity, For Development/For) who will primarily take care of their own municipalities".

This statement received harsh criticism of many tweeters. Providus thinktank director and researcher Iveta Kazoka, for example, asked Eglitis whether his own party had not promised to fight against such policies.

Later Eglitis deleted his tweet and made it softer, saying that it will be interesting to see how the election results will affect the flow of the government and European funds.