Prosecutors seek €6,705 from former Alytus mayor

Prosecutors have filed five civil claims over alleged unjust enrichment by former members of the Alytus City Municipality Council, including former mayor Česlovas Daugėla, LRT reported. They are seeking €6,705 from Daugėla for the benefit of the municipality.

According to the Prosecutor’s Office, Daugėla was reimbursed €6,753 from the municipal budget during the 2019–2023 council term for expenses linked to his council activities, including telephone and internet services and fuel. Investigators found that only €48 in fuel expenses was justified.

The claim says a municipal audit did not identify improper payments to Daugėla, but was incomplete and uninformative. It did not assess the fuel purchases and quantities, including the fact that some fuel was bought during the quarantine period.

“Large quantities of fuel were purchased. On one day, slightly more than 90 litres of petrol were bought in two transactions, among other things. The quantities were unrealistic, especially considering that the politician lives two kilometres from the municipality,” the Prosecutor’s Office said.

It also said that telephone and internet invoices lacked detail, one payment was made to a provider without a licence to offer internet and communications services that was engaged in hotel operations, and the invoices and fuel receipts listed a value-added tax payer code even though the council member was not a VAT payer.

This is not Daugėla’s first encounter with law enforcement. The Special Investigation Service detained him, then mayor of Alytus, in autumn 2010 during a pre-trial investigation into the design, public procurement and construction work for the reconstruction of Alytus city stadium on Birutė Street, including a football field and athletics facilities.

Daugėla was detained for a period. He served on the Alytus City Municipality Council from 2003 to 2007 and was the municipality’s mayor from 2007 to 2010. In 2017, the Supreme Court of Lithuania rejected his appeal in the criminal case, in which he had been found guilty of abuse of office and document forgery in the stadium case.

In a separate civil claim, prosecutors are seeking €6,197 from former Alytus City Municipality Council member Edmundas Čečėta. During the 2019–2023 term, he received €6,230 in reimbursements for fuel and telephone expenses.

Prosecutors found that fuel bought during the quarantine period had been reimbursed without justification. They said Čečėta, who lived less than two kilometres from the municipality, could reasonably have spent only about €35 on fuel when travelling to council and committee meetings.

They also said €1,850 in communications expenses had been unjustifiably reimbursed because Čečėta submitted non-itemised VAT invoices from a private limited company in which he was a shareholder.

In a third civil claim, prosecutors are seeking €5,296 from former Alytus City Municipality Council member Gintautas Andriuškevičius. During the 2019–2023 term, he received €6,086 from the municipal budget for telephone and internet services, office expenses and transport.

Prosecutors found that some fuel was purchased during the quarantine period, when work was conducted remotely, and that large quantities of fuel were bought.