Latvia’s State Revenue Service (VID) is launching disciplinary proceedings against several officials in the wake of a departmental probe into the failure to intercept a large shipment of heroin in Latvia, VID director general Baiba Smite-Roke told the media at a briefing on Wednesday.
Disciplinary proceedings will be opened up against two customs officials for failing to perform their duties adequately, plus as many as seven officials from the Tax and Customs Police Department for negligence.
Smite-Roke says that she cannot name the officials in question, but they will remain on the job during the investigatory period, because the director general does not see any reason to suspend them at this stage.
Disciplinary proceedings can last for up to a month and can be extended if necessary.
“Law enforcement authorities must not allow drugs to pass through Latvia in transit,” Smite-Roke declared. She added that it is not clear at the moment whether the issue was irresponsibility or negligence and that this will be determined during the disciplinary proceedings.
Evia Uvarova, director of the VID Internal control Department and of the Service Inspection Commission, has said that her commission has not found that officials engaged in deliberate or malicious actions, nor were there are any identified risks of corruption during the service inspection.
Latvian Public Television has reported that the investigation of the large shipment of heroin which passed through Latvia in late January has “slowed down” the transfer of Aigars Prusaks, director of the VID Tax and Customs Police Directorate, to the post of chief of the Tax and Customs Police.
Source: BNS
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