In giving its consent to the construction of the railway, the Saeima based its vote on documents that envisaged a simple solution - just the main line with a stop in Riga, no regional stations or the so-called Riga loop, and a sum of EUR 1.2 billion, even though the government knew at the time that the cost would be close to 2 billion.
The Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry on Thursday, August 8, questioned Agnis Driksna, former Chairman of the Board of the joint venture RB Rail, and Jānis Eiduks, Chief Technical Expert at the project implementer in Latvia Eiropas Dzelzceļa līnijas, both of whom have previously worked in other positions at the Ministry of Transport.
The officials were not clear about why the documents did not even include a budgetary impact assessment.
"As for the financial impact, why it is not written there, I don't really know. [..] It is very possible that in the context of this document, it is meant that no obligations arise from the approval of the route and that obligations arise only from implementation. [..] I am actually a bit surprised myself why it is not there," said Driksna.
MP Skaidrīte Ābrama (Progressives) said that the Ministry of Finance had not coordinated anything: "This is surprising because the Ministry of Finance usually coordinates, asks for estimates, even if you hire an employee in a public institution, you have to write down how much a computer will cost, how much a desk will cost and what the impact on public funding will be. [..] But here there has been no agreement on that amount at all."
"It turns out that the Latvian kilometer is the most expensive. In Estonia, it is about 18 million per kilometer with everything. In Latvia it is 36 million per kilometer, in Lithuania 26 million per kilometer," continued MP Amils Salimovs (For Stability!).
The Members concluded that no one has really looked at the overall financial picture.
"So these changes have led to us ordering a Mercedes with a lot of options and we have not even looked at whether we can afford to buy and operate a Mercedes. And we are aware that we do not have the approved funding for either the Mercedes or the options," concluded Andris Kulbergs (United List), Chair of the Commission.
One of the conclusions was that the government had counted on Europe to provide the money from the outset.
