Development agency head accused of demanding bribes

RIGA - Three people witnessed Latvian Investment and Development Agency (LIDA) Director Andris Ozols’ demand to receive a bribe, Aerodium Chairman Ivars Beitans told the LNT show ‘900 Seconds’ on June 8, reports Nozare.lv. In connection with the World Expo 2010 vertical wind tunnel project, the LIDA director initially demanded a bribe of 6-10 percent of the sum of the agreement, later settling on an 8 percent request.

Ozols, however, had earlier accused Aerodium of being involved in defrauding the state, claiming disagreements over the World Expo 2010 pavilion were used to blackmail the LIDA, he had also said on a 900 Seconds show.
The LIDA director turned to the law enforcement authorities over the alleged actions of Aerodium, claiming to have written evidence that the company is involved in large-scale misappropriation of funds, having received significant funding to construct a science pavilion in the southern Latvian city of Jelgava similar to the one built in Shanghai; however, this has not been carried out, despite the state investing significant resources in the project.

A “dummy” was instead constructed in Jelgava, and the wind tunnel has not yet been put into use, as this would have been noticed at least by local residents, claims the LIDA director. He indicates that Beitans made it understood that he wished the status of two documents to be reassessed in connection with the Jelgava project in order “to be friends.” Threats were made that otherwise LIDA would be discredited, which has now been done. “Now LIDA looks bad, (...) as the latest success story is threatened with disgrace due to bureaucracy,” said Ozols ironically.

Considering that the agreement concluded between Aerodium and the LIDA is worth a total of 2.5 million lats (3.5 million euros), the alleged bribe demanded by Ozols would have amounted to 204,000 lats.
The first hint at the necessity of paying a bribe was made last summer to one of Beitans’ colleagues. The direct request to Beitans was made in the autumn. During the meeting, Ozols insisted on switching off mobile telephones and removing the batteries. “We refused to pay, therefore problems began to occur,” says the businessman.
He explains that the company did not turn to law enforcement institutions immediately after the bribe demand due to the fact that it wished to complete work on the wind tunnel for Latvia’s Expo pavilion. Now this has been done, and “we can do battle.”

Beitans is currently on a business trip in Italy. Following his return to Latvia, he will turn to the Corruption Prevention Bureau (CPB) with a request to investigate Ozols’ actions, which include demanding a bribe, extortion, slander and blackmail.

The Aerodium director also rejected rebukes over the activity of his company’s wind tunnel in Jelgava, indicating that there were problems with the tunnel’s noise levels and that it had been financially unsuccessful. However, Beitans indicated that the object was fully operational and was used for training army personnel and instructors, despite not being open to the public.

Beitans continued, saying that Ozols is spreading lies, and that Aerodium will “fight for the truth and not allow itself to be blackmailed by a bureaucrat.”
The purported publicly spreading of false information by Ozols is an attempt to conceal even greater problems connected with the Latvian Pavilion, says Beitans. “Ozols made a direct offer to split the money so that ‘everything will go smoothly.’ When this offer was refused, Ozols started to spread lies and accusations,” said Beitans.
“We are not the kind of people who give in, and it is not acceptable to us that people like Ozols are working for the state system,” he added.

Meanwhile, in an interview on June 7 on Latvian State Radio, Ozols categorically denied that he would have accepted a bribe, describing Beitans as a “fraudster.” The LIDA director also indicated that an inspector had been sent to Shanghai to investigate reported problems with the pavilion, where Aerodium has not fulfilled points made in the agreement.
CPB spokesman Andris Vitenburgs said that the bureau is already carrying out operations in order to assess the facts connected with the alleged bribe demands. World Expo 2010 opened on May 1 in Shanghai and will run until October 31.