From May 13th to May 14th of 2021, the State Police of Latvia organised International Seminar on the issue of “Corruption in the private sector, investigation of crimes related to public and private procurement”. The aim of the workshop was to provide theoretical knowledge and practical lessons in the field of investigating economic crimes on corruption in the private sector, as well as investigating crime related to public and private procurement.
The international workshop was conducted online and the participants welcomed not only the local and foreign experts involved, but also could share experience between foreign experts. At the same time, a valuable benefit was also the opportunity to strengthen cooperation between authorities in the internal affairs and justice sector, thereby contributing to the overall work of investigating and combating economic crimes in Latvia.
The Seminar was opened by Peteris Bauska, Head of Economics Crime Enforcement Department (ENAP), highlighting the spotlight on the investigation and prevention of economic crimes, particularly corruption crimes. The speeches were also made by Vitālijs Polovinskis, Head of the ENAP Second Division and Normunds Grūbis, Chief of Administrative Board, encouraging participants to actively involve in the discussion of the workshop and exchange the experience.
At the Seminar, various Latvian experts shared knowledge about the characteristics of the special entity in the criminal offence of unauthorised benefit-taking, the risks of the cartel in public procurement and the role of the commissioning party, the practice of managing corruption risk and the elements of the system, as well as the experience of corporate corruption, examples in the financial sector and observations from the financial sector.
Experts from the United States, including the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, also participated with prepared presentations, not only about corruption and how to investigate it, but also spoke about economic crime and fraud investigations.
The seminar was attended by approximately 130 participants from the State Police, the State Police College, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Justice, the State Revenue Service, the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau, the Financial Intelligence Service, the Competition Council, the Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Latvia, SEB Bank, the insurance company “Gjensidige”, etc.
The organisers of the workshop express their gratitude to all participants for their interest and involvement in the workshop, as well as to assess the willingness and the successful cooperation between the lecturers of the workshop and the institutions represented by them.
The workshop was organised within the framework of the European Economic area grant 2014-2021 programme “International Police Cooperation and Combating Crime” project No.EEZ/VP/2020/1 “Support to the State Police for increasing effectiveness and quality of economic crime investigation in Latvia”.
