Malinauskas alleges nepotism and insider hiring in Kaunas district

Blogger Skirmantas Malinauskas has accused the Kaunas district municipality of nepotism and creating jobs for insiders following an LRT investigation into the employment of Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius’s wife, Aistė Sinkevičienė.

LRT reported that Sinkevičienė became head of the municipality’s Public and International Relations Department without a competition after returning from maternity leave. She also receives a second salary from Raudondvaris Manor, a public institution subordinate to the municipality, where she works remotely as a public relations representative.

Her contact details have not been made public, and other employees said they had not heard of her as a colleague. LRT Investigations journalist Jurga Tvaskienė said she could not determine whether the employment was fictitious because she was not a labour inspector. However, journalists had found no evidence that Sinkevičienė had actually worked at Raudondvaris Manor.

“This employment looks much more like a position was found for a person, along with an additional salary, just as the same kind of position and salary were found for almost 10 other people linked to the Social Democrats at the same Raudondvaris Manor,” Tvaskienė said while discussing the investigation.

She said the Social Democrats had attempted to discredit the investigation by claiming that journalists had relied only on comments from the manor’s deputy director, who said she did not know Sinkevičienė worked there. Tvaskienė said she had spoken to several people whose reactions were broadly similar.

According to Tvaskienė, at least three advisers to the Kaunas district mayor, the partner of the mayor’s press representative, the son of a municipal council member and the manor’s director, and other people had also worked at the manor. She described this as a clear nepotism scheme in which people linked to a political party were hired at a public institution maintained by the municipality because of family or party connections.

Malinauskas said he was particularly struck by the fact that a person working in communications, who should normally be visible to colleagues and journalists, had remained unnoticed. He said it was difficult to imagine a communications employee whom nobody knew, adding that the lack of awareness among the manor’s staff suggested the person was working there only formally.

Malinauskas also criticised the way the discussion had been reframed as an attack on the prime minister and his wife. In his words, the case showed that the Kaunas district municipality had developed a system of “jobs for insiders” and nepotism.