Ventspils companies seek answers in contributions to Adamsons party

RIGA (LETA) - LatRosTrans board chairman Valentins Kokalis did not mean only money transferred last year, but the total sum of financial support when talking about LatRosTrans's 100,000 lats in donations to the Latvian Social Democratic Workers Party Kokalis said.

Earlier, a report signed by LatRosTrans director general Jadviga Berzina, indicated that the only sum that LatRosTrans transferred to LSDSP was 20,000. The decision on transferring the sum to LSDSP was adopted by the LatRosTrans"board under Kokalis on Aug. 22 of 1999.

"I can only repeat what I said earlier," said Kokalis. However, Kokalis previously told LETA that "LatRosTrans transferred more than 100,000 to LSDSP last year."

Kokalis said that he has documents proving that Ventspils nafta, LatRosTrans Ltd.and several other Ventspils companies have transferred considerable sums of money to LSDSP, represented by the head of the parliamentary investigative commission, Janis Adamsons, as well as to the producer of the TV program "Nedela," Edvins Inkens, of Latvia's Way.

"Aivars [Lembergs, mayor of Ventspils] turned to me requesting that I help Adamsons and LSDSP push through the transit business issue, but when the money was transferred to the accounts of both Adamsons and [the LSDSP chairman Juris] Bojars, I realized that it was used for other purposes" said Kokalis.

According to Kokalis, LatRosTrans transferred more than 100,000 to LSDSP in the past year.

"I hoped that the money would be utilized to improve relations with Russia in terms of the transit business, but it turned out that the money was spent on something else," said Kokalis.

The LatRosTrans chairman did not explain however how Lembergs actually organized the scandal, and how exactly he had commissioned and financed it.

Meanwhile, Gundega Varpa, press secretary at Ventspils nafta, said that LatRosTrans has not transfered 100,000 to LSDSP.

Varpa said that Jadviga Berzina looked into the matter following Kokalis' announcement at the request of Igors Skoks, president of Ventspils nafta and council chairman at LatRosTrans and established that the only sum that LatRosTrans had transferred to LSDSP was 20,000 lats.

The decision on allocating the sum was adopted when Skoks was not yet council chairman at LatRosTrans.

"Therefore, Kokalis' statements can be regarded as an irresponsible invention, which has resulted in considerable damage to the prestige of Ventspils nafta and LatRosTrans. We are really keen to see Kokalis hand over the documents to law enforcement institutions. If he fails to do so in a few days, we will know that the nonsense is over," stressed Skoks.

Since rumors about Ventspils nafta's funding of political parties are still circulating, Skoks repeatedly called on respective law enforcement institutions to turn to Ventspils nafta and evaluate the grounds for such rumors.

"We are tired of unsubstantiated talk about Ventspils nafta and, even though the company has noted several times that we have nothing to do with financing parties, the rumors could only be put an end to by an immediate investigation conducted by law enforcement institutions," said Skoks.