Neimantas removes company promotion from Facebook post

Seimas member Karolis Neimantas has removed company contact details and a recommendation to use its services from a Facebook post, following a recommendation by the parliamentary Commission on Ethics and Procedures, LRT reported.

Neimantas confirmed to BNS that he had edited the post. “Yes, it has been done,” he said.

Ten commission members voted in late July for Neimantas to amend the post, while one voted against. The commission did not establish that he had breached the parliamentary Code of Ethics. Six members abstained, two voted against finding a breach and three voted in favour.

Commission chairman Viktoras Fiodorovas said the commission had chosen a milder measure. He said that obliging Neimantas to remove the content would imply a breach of the Code of Conduct for State Politicians, while the recommendation reflected an apparent intention to avoid such a breach.

The commission also warned all members of parliament that taking part in advertising campaigns for private companies, or promoting their goods and services, could raise questions about the transparency of their activities. It recommended that MPs not participate in such advertising.

The decision followed an assessment of a May 27 post about Neimantas’s visit to Mėmelio ratai, a company in Klaipėda. Neimantas wrote that he had known the company’s owner for about nine years and recommended the business to people in his circle, saying he knew they would not be disappointed. The commission focused on that part of the post, including the recommendation that residents of western Lithuania use the company’s services.

Conservative Jurgis Razma said the commission should have required Neimantas to remove the promotional elements rather than merely recommending it. Daiva Žebelienė, a representative of Nemunas Dawn, said there was no evidence that Neimantas had received payment and that his visit to the company should not be treated as an ethics or conflict-of-interest violation.

Liberal Arminas Lydeka argued that promoting the company was improper and that Neimantas should be found to have breached the parliamentary ethics code. Social Democrat Ingrida Braziulienė said the post contained advertising elements because it included the company’s contact information and a recommendation that sounded like an advertisement and an invitation.

Neimantas said he had no direct interests in the company. He said he had wanted, out of goodwill, to praise the business’s performance, but acknowledged that he may have praised it too much.