As the most significant event of the week for RP SIA “Rīgas satiksme”, one shall undoubtedly consider the approval of the Riga municipality budget at Riga City Council meeting of March 28. “Rīgas satiksme” Board member J. Švanders and the acting Financial director of the capital company, L. Hodaseviča, as well as Board Chairman Dr .iur. E. Saulītis participated in the meeting where the budget was approved. The amount of funding to be granted was already known – EUR 130 million in compensation for passenger transportation services provided in Riga city. Still, only this resolution of Riga City Council passed on March 28 concluded the process of drawing up the capital company’s budget for the year 2019. Now it is necessary to find ways of cutting the approved budget deficit in the amount of EUR 9 million.

This week was also full of other events that are important for the capital company.

On March 25, the Board of “Rīgas satiksme” held a scheduled meeting with top executives of “PricewaterhouseCoopers”, which had been auditing the capital company for many years. The parties exchanged views, consulted about the process of drawing up the 2018 annual report, as well as discussed future cooperation issues, including support in the field of improving budget drafting procedures in the capital company. Given the specifics of the capital company’s operations and funding, it is planned that that these procedures will be harmonised and partly integrated with the procedure of drafting Riga’s municipal budget.

There was also a scheduled meeting between the Boards of “Rīgas satiksme” and SIA “Solaris Bus & Coach Latvija”, which discussed issues related to resuming normal cooperation between the companies, the expected fulfilment of the signed contracts, as well as “green” technology solutions for public transport in Riga. It shall be mentioned that in order to solve these issues, a member of “Rīgas satiksme” Board, A. Krūze, also met with representatives of “Iveco” Group. Representatives of SIA “Solaris Bus & Coach Latvija” expressed hope to meet and discuss these issues, as well as present the technologies being at the company’s disposal at the international Geneva car show late this year. The parties agreed to continue negotiations after the meeting of the expert group due on March 28.

On March 25, a significant agreement was also reached in the expert group with representatives of “Škoda Transportation”, which will hopefully allow the long-running negotiations process to be concluded and the deliveries of vehicles to be resumed. The Board of “Rīgas satiksme” believes that the precise detailing of the supply procedure will open up ways for successful cooperation between the two companies within the framework of the already existing contractual relations, as well as in future projects.

On March 26, “Rīgas satiksme” Board Chairman Dr .iur. E. Saulītis and Board member J. Meirāns participated in the meeting of the Public Expenditure and Audit Committee of the Saeima. It shall be noted that the meeting agenda stated that it would consider the statement of the Ministry of the Environment Protection and Regional Development (MEPRD) about the audit results in RP SIA “Rīgas satiksme”. The capital company informs that MEPRD has not performed any kind of audit in “Rīgas satiksme”, and one cannot see any legal ground for such audit to be performed. Given the poor understanding by some members of the committee of the limits of its competence set by the Rule of Order of the Saeima and the regulatory framework, it would be difficult to call the atmosphere of the meeting positive.

On March 26, “Rīgas satiksme” Board member A. Krūze participated in the public debate of the Skanste tram project, organised by Riga City Council’s City Development Department and Riga City Construction Board. The meeting was held in the conference room of Riga City Council and was attended by many stakeholders, their opinions will contribute to further development of the project. The building of the circular tramline or connecting line along Senču – Pērnavas Street would open up opportunities for making public transport services in Riga city more accessible in many directions. The Skanste semi-circle has been chosen to relieve the tramlines in the city centre, which are being used very intensively, as well as to attract new passengers who mainly used other means of transportation so far.

On March 28, “Rīgas satiksme” concluded negotiations with PS “Rīgas mikroautobusu satiksme” about the optimization of the route network, which would enable imbalance to be avoided in passenger transportation in Riga city. “Rīgas satiksme” Board member J. Meirāns led the negotiations. You can read more about their results here: https://ej.uz/xsit . In the nearest future, necessary amendments will be submitted to Riga City Council’s Commission for Licencing of Commercial Passenger Transportation and Riga City Council’s Transport Department for approval.

On March 29, “Rīgas satiksme” held a regular meeting to discuss issues related to the implementation of internal audit results in structural units of the capital company. At the meeting, “Rīgas satiksme” Board expressed gratitude for long service and contribution to Director of Operations Jānis Dziedātājs, who was retiring. We hope that J. Dziedātājs will not deny us his advice also in the future. The Board has also approved the beginning of the procedure of signing a contract with law office “Novius” on the evaluation of the liability of the previous “Rīgas satiksme” Board Members for causing possible damage to the capital company. It is scheduled that the evaluation will be performed within three weeks upon signing the contract.

On March 29, “Rīgas satiksme” Board member J. Meirāns participated at the meeting of Public Transport, which was held at the Motor Transport Directorate. Although “Rīgas satiksme” presented conclusive evidence about passengers’ transport using habits, it was decided at the meeting of the Public transport council to postpone until May this year the granting of the compensation prepayment to Riga City Council for the transportation of disabled persons. “Rīgas satiksme” informs that the postponement of this payment will not affect the operation of the capital company and passenger transportation services in Riga city. At the same time, “Rīgas satiksme” considers as groundless the allegations about the accounting of transported disabled persons, because the state institutions which make these allegations have not provided for a long time a single system of accounting the transportation of such persons, as well as have not provided carriers with means of verifying the documents of such persons and their conformity with actual status.

On March 29, a team of “Rīgas satiksme” Board members and the company’s management held a working meeting with representatives of AS “Citadele banka” management to discuss preconditions of further cooperation between the parties. Representatives of AS “Citadele banka” noted that it is necessary to ensure the appointment of the capital company’s council and the permanent board as soon as possible,  as well as made recommendations how to strengthen the functions and the role of the internal audit in the capital company in order to ensure the implementation of audit recommendations. The meeting was held in a positive atmosphere, yet it has been noted that there are significant risks in the capital company’s operations, which may influence further cooperation. The parties agreed to continue and improve mutual communication. The Board of “Rīgas satiksme” plans to meet also with representatives of other creditors to inform them about the situation in the company and about what has been already done, as well as to improve information exchange. Actually, such information exchange on the management level was suspended for several months. The Board of “Rīgas satiksme” believes that such situation is inacceptable and apologises to its cooperation partners.

On Friday, March 29, Riga city councillors elected Vadims Baraņņiks the second vice-mayor of Riga. It is expected that V. Baraņņiks will supervise the field of transportation in the capital city.

You can find more information on „Rīgas satiksme” services, route schedules, types of tickets and other news www.rigassatiksme.lv and also in social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook.