Ministries leaving money on the table

RIGA -  During the past seven months, the Transport Ministry has utilized only one-fifth, or 21 percent, of the available funding from European Union funds, which is the lowest figure among all state institutions, as Latvian State Television program ‘De Facto’ reported on Aug. 14. The Transport Ministry must still manage to utilize more than 100 million lats (142.8 million euros) until the end of the year.

The Environmental Protection and Regional Development Ministry has utilized 40 percent of the available funding, which means that it still has access to 70 million lats.
The Finance Ministry admits that there are cases when the funding is not utilized due to justified reasons - for example, complicated procurement procedures.

According to the Finance Ministry’s data, the Welfare Ministry is the leading state institution in utilization of the EU funds. As of July 31, the ministry has utilized 73 percent of the available funding.
At the same time, the Culture Ministry has utilized 63 percent; the State Chancellery more than 50 percent; the Finance Ministry 40 percent; the Education and Science Ministry 38 percent; the Economy Ministry 31 percent; and the Health Ministry just 30 percent of the available EU funds.