Although the total cost of the facility is around 183,000 euros and the minister has previously called it a waste of funds, preliminary information from the service inspection shows that "good intentions" were behind the construction of the facility.
"It can be said that the intentions were good. In other words, here, of course, [the intention] was both to improve the site and to show the origins of the mechanized brigade. But we can see that there have been cost increases over a period of time. Here, questions can really be asked about the use and misuse of funds," said Sprūds.
He pointed out that the facility will not be demolished.
According to the Minister, the removal of the object could lead to additional costs, its creation was also the smallest financial item of the project, the main thing was to improve the area near the Ādaži military base.
"The largest amount of money (...) has been spent on the plaza, the environmental object itself has not cost the largest amount. It is not 180,000 [euros] for the object, it is largely for the square at the Ādaži base. There would be costs here that would be necessary anyway. So we are taking a pause for the time being. There is also the question of whether, if we were to take any other steps, this would require additional financial investment, which we would certainly not want to do anymore," said Sprūds.
Asked about the accountability of officials for what he considered to be misuse of funds, Spruds pointed out that several people were involved, but it might be more important to think about improving the system rather than punishing officials.
