Agriculture Ministry has squandered EUR 3.1 million, setting up network of electric car charging stations - State Audit Office

RIGA - The Agriculture Ministry has failed to act meaningfully and in accordance with its development plans by investing EUR 3.1 million in the establishment of its own network of electric car charging stations, the State Audit Office concluded in its audit.

The network of charging stations for electric cars does not meet the current and future needs of the ministry's fleet, nor do the charging facilities installed at the sites meet the technical possibilities available.

Inga Vilka, a member of the State Audit Office, pointed out that the network of electric car charging stations established by the ministry had not been planned before in the ministry's 2022 budget and does not meet the ministry's current and future needs and technical possibilities - it is too large.

Moreover, it has been built at a relatively high price for charging facilities. Vilka stressed that the State Audit Office understands the desire of the ministry to follow the Green Deal, but the findings of the audit show that in this case the Green Deal has rather been used as a cover for unjustified and wasteful use of state budget funds.

The ministry's network of 52 charging stations at 42 charging points for electric cars has been built on a technical solution that is inadequate to the actual needs.

The audit concluded that the solution chosen by the procurement commission for electric cars - to install only high-power or more than 22 kilowatts (kW) electric car chargers - is not in line with the national policy planning documents and the practice in the field.

Although the ministry had only six electric cars in its fleet in 2022, the change was justified by the need to complete the network of electric car charging stations by the end of 2022. Already in 2022, the ministry paid the EUR 2.4 million, or about 80 percent of the allocated funds, but it was not until autumn 2023 that the first charging points were put into operation and not until July 2024 that the network with all 52 charging stations was completed.

As of mid-August this year, more than half of the charging stations built were still unused.

By applying the practice of other state capital companies and installing charging equipment of normal capacity for its own needs, the ministry could have saved at least EUR 2.7 million in state budget funds, the audit concluded.