LRT reports ethics inquiry into Vilnius mayor’s club ties

Vilnius City Council member Povilas Pinelis has asked the Chief Official Ethics Commission to investigate whether Mayor Valdas Benkunskas faced a conflict of interest when the municipality considered leasing premises to the Vilnius Club without a tender, LRT reported, citing ELTA.

Benkunskas is the president of the Vilnius Club, a public institution. The commission’s chair, Jolanta Bernotaitė, confirmed to ELTA that it had received the complaint.

At a Vilnius City Council meeting in June, members considered leasing the club 30 square metres of premises at 2-7 Trakų Street without a tender. The proposed rent was 13 euros per square metre per month, or 390 euros in total.

The Vilnius Club already uses 694 square metres at 2 Trakų Street under a free-use agreement granted without a tender.

Benkunsas, who chaired the meeting, and former Vilnius mayor Remigijus Šimašius, a member of the Vilnius Club, withdrew from consideration of the matter after other politicians urged them to do so. The council approved the proposal at its initial stage, with 35 votes in favour, one against and six abstentions.

Municipal property department head Vilma Lajauskaitė said the additional premises were an emergency exit in the same building as the club’s headquarters. She said the club needed the exit to meet fire safety requirements because it hosts events, and that existing laws allowed the premises to be leased without a tender.

Pinelis argues that the council should not have considered the matter even after Benkunskas withdrew. He said the mayor stepped aside only after council members called on him to do so, and argued that officials involved in preparing the decision could have been influenced by their subordination to the mayor.

“The chain is very simple: the mayor is the president of the Vilnius Club, and the decision may be beneficial to him as the club’s president. It is then implemented by the administration director he appointed,” Pinelis told ELTA.

Pinelis also criticised the club’s request for preferential rental terms, saying its members could find or purchase premises themselves.

Benkunsas told ELTA that the risk of a conflict of interest was “conditional”, as his position as mayor also required him to become the club’s president. He also said that similar conditions for transferring premises had been in place for a long time.