Millions of lats wasted in building the Southern Bridge

RIGA-Riga city mayor Janis Birks has announced hisshock at the 27 million that was "squandered in the building of the Dienvidu(Southern) Bridge."

"Decisions regarding the Dienvidu Bridgeat the Riga City Council were passed with a strong majority of votes,therefore, if the State Audit Office proves to be right, I will consider thatthe council members were deliberately deceived," Birks has said.

The amount in question, 27 million lats, has caught theattention of Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis who plans to assign Regional Developmentand Local Affairs minister Edgars Zalans to determine what should be done aboutthe matter.

"The announcement that LVL 27 million have beensquandered in construction of the Dienvidu Bridge, did not actually surpriseme, as already previously there were comments that it seemed to be among themost costly bridges in the world," Dombrovskis said in an interview on LNTtelevision.

Auditor General Inguna Sudraba said that out of the 570million lats, for financing the first two stages of the bridge construction, 264million lats were spent on attracting financing.

The bridge was unveiled to the public on November 17, 2008.