Trial Statistics for Offences Committed in Public Service

Statistics of corruption in public service in Latvia 2004 - 2013 on the number of cases, tried public officials and the size of bribes.

As noted by the PROVIDUS’ Senior Policy Analyst Valts Kalniņš, the number of tried public officials is decreasing, within 2013 – by more than two times, if compared to the previous year. But more important is the fact that mainly simple cases reach the court.

Compared to 2012, the number of tried public officials in 2013 has decreased by more than two times – from 46 to 20 persons. Moreover, it is the lowest number of convicted officials since 2004, when the Centre for Public Policy PROVIDUS began analyzing and visualizing this data.

As noted by the PROVIDUS’ Senior Policy Analyst Valts Kalniņš, more important is the fact that mainly the simple cases go to court.

Statistics clearly indicate the lack of grave corruption cases in the court proceedings.

Other conclusions:

• In 2013 the number of persons tried in the court of first instance decreased to 85 (compared to 108 in 2012);

• The number of convicted public officials was 20 – the lowest since 2004 when PROVIDUS started analysing these statistics;

• Also the number of convicted officers of the State Police (9) was lowest since 2004;

• Convictions of public officials included also 1 customs officer, 2 officers of the National Border Guard, 1 bailiff, 1 school director and 6 officials of other institutions;

• All cases of 2013 were relatively simple, evidenced by the fact that all of the judgments had come into force by the middle of 2014;

• 2013 was the first year since 2004 when no person was acquitted – also an indirect indicator of the absence of complicated corruption cases;

• No person was given a real prison sentence, which is another indication of the absence of grave cases;

• 47 out of 78 cases were related to offering or giving bribes to the traffic police. Investigators have targeted this type of corruption more frequently than any other during the last years.

The statistics relate to public officials’ offences of abuse of office, as well as offering or giving bribes.

More information: PROVIDUS’ Senior Policy Analyst Valts Kalniņš, valts.kalnins@providus.lv, +371 67039280, +371 67039251

The visualization has been created in Project „PROVIDUS – a partner of state in policy planning and policy making process”. Project is financed by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway in framework of NGO Project Measure. NGO Project Measure is financed with financial support from EEA Financial Mechanism and Republic of Latvia.