On changes in the Management Board of Latvenergo AS
October 30, 2020
On Friday, October 30, the Supervisory Board of Latvenergo AS decided to appoint Guntars Baļčūns, Member of the Management Board and Chief Financial Officer, as acting Chairman of the Latvenergo AS Management Board starting from October 31, the Chief Technology and Support Officer Kaspars Cikmačs also continues working in the Management Board.
Today, the Supervisory Board received and approved applications for termination of fulfilment of job duties by the current Chairman of the Management Board Āris Žīgurs and Member of the Management Board Uldis Bariss. Ā. Žīgurs stops working at the company today, while Uldis Bariss will fulfil duties of Member of the Management Board until November 11. As it has already been reported, U. Bariss has been selected through a competition as the Chairman of the Management Board of Conexus Baltic Grid AS.
A month ago the Supervisory Board of Latvenergo AS initiated an audit regarding actions and events of officials of the Group in 2015 to evaluate whether attitude of Latvenergo AS towards individual businessmen has not been unreasonably favourable, and to verify compliance of the procurements and other transactions of the Group in previous years with the requirements of internal and external regulation. The conducted audit has not provided any supplementary facts, which would require further criminal legal assessment. At the same time, the information previously published on public TV and in other media, as well as the information obtained during the audit are a sufficient reason for the Supervisory Board to take a principled position against violations of corporate ethics principles and against situations causing suspicions of violation of such norms. Chairman of the Supervisory Board I. Golsts: “I appreciate the decision of Mr Žīgurs to set interests of the company higher in this situation.”
The audit results have also made it possible to make conclusions regarding the improvements, which would enable the Group to improve corporate and procurement processes.
The Supervisory Board thanks Ā. Žīgurs for his previous work in managing the Group, as well as highly values his ability to take responsibility. In order to strengthen competitiveness of the Group and to build a company, which is well-prepared for future challenges, it is necessary to have a fresh vision, dynamic novelties and a strong team of leaders.
The Supervisory Board of Latvenergo AS believes in the importance of ensuring high quality of governance in the Group, and therefore the competition procedure for the selection of members of the Management Board will start very soon.