the Prosecutor General has been notified concerning 11 violations of legal provisions
detected as a result of these audits. The above violations are related to squandering of
financial funds and property of the State and local governments, offences in the areas
of bookkeeping and finance, violation of regulatory enactments regarding
procurement, interest conflict situations and other various violations. The established
violations of legal provisions were classified as squandering of financial funds and
property of the State and local governments, as negligence in performing duties of the
State civil servants, as exceeding of authority of the State civil servants and as
inexpedient use of funds of the State and local governments.
The State Audit Service also maintained that, during the audit “On 2008 Annual
Report on the Fulfillment of State Budget and Budgets of Local Governments of the
Republic of Latvia”, it was established that some State institutions had not followed
the restrictions on bonus payments and material incentives. Therefore, the budget
funds have not been used efficiently or have been used in violation of legislative acts.
11. The Summoned party – the Ombudsman of the Republic of Latvia
(hereinafter – the Ombudsman) – maintained that social security rights belong to social
rights that are very important; however at the same time these are special and different
rights since their enactment depends on the economic situation in the country and the
available resources. Therefore, in international documents, social rights are formulated
as general duties of the State, giving Member States a broad freedom in the enactment
of these rights. At the same time, it should be considered that these rights are included
in the Constitution and hence the State cannot resign from the enactment of these
rights. The above conclusion follows also from the principle of socially responsible
state. The legislator has established temporary restrictions in disbursements of
pensions, thus limiting the fundamental rights of persons guaranteed by Article 109 of
the Constitution.
Referring to the cases of the Constitutional Courts of Latvia and Lithuania, the
Ombudsman acknowledged that the impugned provisions have to be assessed also in
the context of Article 105 of the Constitution. When determining the legitimate end of
the impugned provisions, the balancing of revenues and expenditures of the pension
special budget can be deemed as such a legitimate end. The necessity to avoid creation
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