RIGA, May 6 (LETA) - The Riga City Council will turn to law enforcement authorities in respect to violations discovered during audit at Rigas Mezi municipal forest manager, Riga Mayor Martins Stakis (Progressives/For) said in a press conference today.

He said that an audit in Rigas Mezi discovered systematic mismanagement with the property of the residents of Riga.

Riga City Council housing and environment committee chairman Edmunds Cepuritis (Progressives/For) said that the audit confirmed the facts presented by whistle blowers about violations of environment education project Zala Klase (Green Classroom) and timber processing plant Norupe.

Cepuritis said that unauthorized investments worth EUR 100,000 were made in Zala Klase project, and the council has not been able to assess compliance of these investments. It is not possible to assess whether the building built during the project are actually worth the money spent.

In the same way, it is hard to assess whether the investments comply with the environment education needs, as money has been used to build premises for slaughterhouse, purchase glasses for alcoholic beverages, which suggest that it is more likely to meet the needs of hunters' society than environment education, said Cepuritis.

Meanwhile, Norupe timber processing company has worked with losses after selling high quality timber as defected products, thus, receiving much lower revenue than the market price. 

The total loss will be estimated and enforced from former board members of Rigas Mezi.

Cepuritis said that transparent processes will be introduced in Rigas Mezi.

As reported, Rigas Mezi board chairman Aivars Taurins and board member Juris Buskevics lost their positions because of a number of violations discovered during the audit.

According to Firmas.lv, Rigas Mezi share capital is almost EUR 115 million.

The company posted EUR 16.8 million in turnover and EUR 621,579 in profit in 2019.