Riga, May 28 (LETA) - It would not be surprising if the scandal over the tender for catering services at Riga schools would be an element of the pre-election campaign, Prime Minister Evika Silina (New Unity) said in an interview on the Latvian Television today.

Commenting on the catering procurement scandal, the politician stressed that she herself would always like Latvian companies to feed children. However, understanding that Latvia is part of the European single market, she has no legitimate concerns at the moment that there might have been any irregularities in the procurement.

"Let the authorities do their job. I would not be surprised if this was a pre-election campaign," the prime minister said. Silina has observed that currently, during the pre-election period, many people use the opportunity to exchange letters with their competitors, which end up in the Corruption Prevention and Bureau.

At the same time, Silina stressed that ways should be found to ensure that such large catering services could be provided with local food, which is also a task for the Agriculture Ministry.

As reported, Ivars Balamovskis, Director of the Riga Education, Culture and Sport Department, told a press conference on Tuesday that if the conditions of the contract are not met, the winning company in the Riga school catering tender may lose the contract sooner.

The company Aleks Un V, CNC was awarded a five-year contract for catering in nine educational institutions. The total value of the contract is around EUR 53 million, while Aleks Un V, CNC won the right to provide catering in nine schools for a total of more than EUR 17 million.

It was explained at the press conference that the municipality has the right to assess how the company performs the services foreseen in the contract and, if necessary, may not continue the contract for the whole five years.

The Executive Director of the City of Riga, Janis Lange, informed that eight tenderers submitted bids. One of them did not meet the requirements and therefore did not proceed in the tender.

However, the bids of the other seven participants were equal. They met the quality requirements: organically grown food, compliance with the National Food Quality Scheme, food grown within 300 kilometers of the place of supply, and seasonal products. As regards the price, a corridor of minimum and maximum prices was established and all tenderers offered the minimum possible price.

The winner was therefore determined by lot, with all the tenderers having signed a declaration that they had no objection to the lottery process.

Balamovskis explained that similar tenders are awarded each year, with some schools having three-year contracts and others five-year contracts. Consequently, when the contract expires, new tenders are organized.

In total, 90 schools and 148 kindergartens in Riga are tendering for catering, LETA was told.

Currently, nine companies provide catering services in Riga municipal educational institutions.

As reported, according to Firmas.lv, Aleks Un V is owned equally by Anatolijs Polovnuks and Igors Bulatovs. The company CNC belongs to Aleks Un V and Concord Service Group, owned by Lithuanian citizen Irmantas Norkus.

Adazi regional council terminated the contract with this company for catering at the Carnikava Primary School last April. The municipality told TV3 that the company had failed to meet a number of requirements: it had not installed the equipment on time, it had not provided a proper menu, the origin of the food products supplied did not correspond to those specified in the tender, and the municipality had lost faith in the company's ability to fulfil its contractual obligations in good faith in the future.

Riga did not assess the tenderers' background in its procurement.

The results of the tender were appealed before the Procurement Supervision Bureau (IUB) by several firms that took part in the lottery - Fristar, Baltic Restaurants Latvia, Zaks 2.