The government, citing an auditor’s report that found accounting irregularities in one of the departments of the anti-corruption bureau, voted to dismiss anti-corruption chief Aleksejs Loskutovs. However, The International Herald Tribune (IHT) notes that it looked like an “attempt to muzzle the bearer of bad tidings” as Loskutovs was “due to report on campaign financing violations by the prime minister’s coalition” during the 2006 parliamentary election campaign”.

The sacking eventually led to a politically unstable situation, leading three ministers to quit their posts and Prime Minister Kalvitis to resign on 5 December, according to Associated Press. Yielding to the public pressure, Kalvitis reversed his decision, so Loskutovs remains in his seat, but the government decided to reprimand him instead for faulty bookkeeping. Replacements for the ministers were appointed on 8 November.

In a statement made to the IHT, Loskutovs suggests that Latvia’s creation of an anti-corruption authority in 2002, “was not to fight corruption – it was to get into the EU and the NATO”.

The public protests following news of his dismissal focussed not only on corruption in the “oligarchy” - a power structure dominated by wealthy men – Loskutovs says, but also on the general standard of living in Latvia. Latvia’s annual inflation had reached 13.2 percent, a 10-year high for the Baltic state and the highest in the European Union, the Associated Press reports.

For more information, see TI Latvia’s press release on this issue at: www.transparency.org/news_room/latest_news/press_releases_nc/2007/2007_07_16_latvia_a_c_chief