Corruption report hits president's office

President Vaira Vike-Freiberga this week dismissed conflict-of-interest allegations raised in local media that suggested her office had improperly rented cars from a company connected to one of her office's employees.

The daily newspaper Diena had reported that the president's chancellery, the office responsible for coordinating the president's duties, had rented four Mercedes from Spektrs K, a company partly owned by the husband of chancellery employee Iveta Kalnina.

The report inspired accusations that the chancellery had spent more than necessary on the luxury Mercedes cars because of Kalnina's connection to Spektrs K.

"The cars were actually very cheap cars, so you should check your figures," Vike-Freiberga said when asked to respond to the conflict-of-interest allegations.

Martins Bondars, head of the president's chancellery, released the prices of the four cars and said the chancellery was required by law to pick the cheapest ones.

The chancellery pays 600 lats (1,015 euros) per month for a small Mercedes bus and 510 lats, 320 lats and 339 lats per month respectively for three cars, he said.

"I don't see any problems with conflict of interest. I can see where there may have been a perception of it, but that's why we have moved to make clear this is not the case," said Bondars, who added that the prices were up to 25 percent cheaper than those other rental agencies were offering.

Inese Voika, president of the Latvian branch of corruption watchdog Transparency Interna-tional, agreed, saying the president's office had done the right thing by revealing the prices.

The report came on the end of a week in which the government had to begin anew its search for a director of a new anti-corruption bureau after a previous candidate, Dzintars Smitins, deputy head of the security police, was disqualified when he was hit by accusations of conflict of interest relating to Spektrs K which also warehouses and destroys contraband seized by police and customs officials.

Smitins has denied the charges and prosecutors have determined that there are no grounds to pursue an investigation.

Latvia has the second-worst corruption perception rating among European Union candidates, according to Transparency International, but Vike-Freiberga said the country was working hard to dent graft, bribes and conflict of interest.

"It is a fact that corruption exists in every country in the world.," she said at a news conference Aug. 2. "We certainly have scandals here, we have corruption here, but I can assure you that the fight against it is a priority for the president, for the government and now a priority for the population at large, for which I am thankful."