The President of Latvia Edgars Rinkēvičs and Prime Minister Evika Siliņa (New Unity), after a meeting on December 11, said in a briefing that the situation where residents have not been notified of authority correspondence via e-address should be addressed immediately and the actions of those responsible should be evaluated.
In spring 2024, the State Digital Development Agency (VDAA) invited citizens to verify their e-mail address on the “Latvija.gov.lv” portal, to which they receive notifications about messages received via the official e-address. The validation process was necessary to ensure that the data on “Latvija.gov.lv” was up-to-date.
Social media posts show that in some cases citizens have not noticed the invitation to confirm their updated email address, have ignored the invitation, or have not been able to confirm their email address due to technical reasons. As a result, some people find themselves in an unenviable situation. For example, a post on the social networking site “X” caused a lot of controversy because it even led to the liquidation of a company, while someone else’s unpaid traffic fine tripled and was handed over to a bailiff because residents were not being notified of messages sent out by the authorities.
In response to public outrage, the Minister for Smart Administration and Regional Development, Inga Bērziņa (New Unity), instructed the VDAA to restore e-address notifications to unverified e-mails.
However, according to the President and the Prime Minister, this will not be enough, the public needs an apology and those responsible must be found and held accountable.
Rinkēvičs said: “It is the responsibility of the agency that this process was not led to an end in March. And secondly, to say so arrogantly that it is the duty of our people – of every citizen of the country – to follow the failings of the state and to try to respond to the failings of the agency itself is absolutely unacceptable.”
The President believes that the responsibility of the relevant staff of the VDAA should be assessed. “At the end of the day, this kind of inaction has caused real damage to people,” Rinkēvičs added.
The President also noted that he hoped that if such actions by the state had caused losses to people, then it would also be necessary to look at how the state could compensate for these losses.
“I would very much hope that this will not be swept under the carpet just because someone has not understood something, has not done something to the end, but people are getting into some kind of penalties, debts, real losses. I hope that a solution will be found. I expect that it will not just be moaning and apologizing for what has gone wrong, but first of all it must start with this agency apologizing to the people. I also expect the Minister responsible to be proactive in these matters. I expect, firstly, an apology from the Minister, secondly, solutions and, thirdly, that this does not happen again. If there are real losses in the country, then it is time to think whether the budget of that establishment should be reduced by the corresponding amount,” Rinkēvičs said.
Siliņa also agreed with the President, noting that in this situation “we will have to look for those responsible” and also for “non-standard solutions to deal with this situation”.
The official electronic address, or so-called e-address , became available to citizens in 2019. When activated, all state or local government documents reach the addressee in an electronic version. The e-address must be activated on the “Latvija.lv” portal.
As of January 1 2023, e-address is mandatory for legal entities.
