Exposing corruption may cost Bordans his job

All for Latvia-For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK (VL-TB/LNNK) will respect the coalition agreement and not initiate talks with Latvian Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis (Unity) this week about recalling Justice Minister Janis Bordans from office, reports LETA.

Under the coalition agreement, the prime minister must be notified one week before a coalition partner decides to recall a minister; therefore VL-TB/LNNK is currently not planning to request talks with Dombrovskis about the party’s decision to recall Bordans from the government.

The political party made the decision to expel Bordans from the party on Nov. 1.

TB/LNNK’s board believes that Bordans has been actively involved in the formation of another political party - the Democratic Patriots - and thus cannot be allowed to remain in TB/LNNK.

Political Scientist Iveta Kazoka believes that the main reason Justice Minister Bordans was expelled from TB/LNNK was because he was starting to threaten the financial interests of the party’s sponsors, as well as the “sensitive” financial interests of party members.

The political observer believes that Bordans was expelled because of his activities to straighten out the controversial bankruptcy process system in Latvia, where several key members of the party are involved in. “Everything else is just excuses. The party got rid of this person because he threatened the financial interests of the party’s sponsors,” Kazoka said.

Kazoka added that this situation will most likely not threaten the stability of the government. “It is likely that coalition partners will be more than happy to allow VL-TB/LNNK look pathetic in this situation, when they are recalling a minister who has been working rather energetically and effectively,” she said.

Several media outlets have reported other possible reasons why Bordans was expelled from the party, pointing out that his recent activities to straighten out the bankruptcy process in Latvia has angered the controversial VL-TB/LNNK General Secretary Aigars Lusis, who is a bankruptcy administrator by profession.

In recent months, various media have written articles about Lusis and the various high-profile bankruptcy cases he and other bankruptcy administrators have been involved with, where several well-known local entrepreneurs were given very favorable bankruptcy conditions.

Justice Minister Bordans himself does not rule out that his expulsion from VL-TB/LNNK and the party’s request to recall him from the government may be due to his work that may have affected certain people’s economic interests.

“I can only guess the true reason behind this,” Bordans said in an interview with the TV3 broadcast ‘Neka personiga’ (‘Nothing Personal’).

Bordans mentions several possible reasons for his expulsion - potential decisions on the construction of a new prison complex, competition for the position of Riga Regional Court chairman, reforms in the insolvency administration, a criminal case which shows certain people in a bad light.

The minister also mentions a Lithuanian bank, which could lose a loan worth several millions of euros due to cooperation between insolvency administrators and courts, and the minister’s subsequent request to assess the need for a disciplinary case against a Liepaja Court judge.