Sinkevičienė defends job at Raudondvaris estate

Aistė Sinkevičienė says the former long-serving head of Raudondvaris estate, a public institution, had the opportunity to assess her work and professional abilities through projects they carried out together, LRT reported.

The comments come amid questions about the prime minister’s wife’s employment at the estate. In written responses to BNS last week, Sinkevičienė also said she did not know she would be appointed to temporarily lead a department of the Kaunas District Municipality administration after winning a competition for its chief specialist position. She became the department’s permanent head less than a year later, after exceeding expectations as a civil servant.

An LRT investigation published in mid-August found that the municipality’s Public and International Relations Department had been established after Sinkevičienė returned from maternity leave. She also receives a second salary from the municipality-controlled public institution Raudondvaris estate, where she works remotely half-time as a public relations specialist. Her contact details are not published.

The investigation quoted one institution employee as saying she was unaware of Sinkevičienė’s work at the estate. Journalists said other estate employees, speaking on condition of anonymity, gave similar accounts. This raised questions about whether Sinkevičienė actually works there, as well as about possible influence from her spouse over her employment at the estate and her career advancement at the municipality.

Sinkevičienė attributes her professional career to her competence and experience, which she says could have been assessed by social democrat Snieguolė Navickienė, now a deputy mayor of Kaunas District Municipality. Navickienė headed Raudondvaris estate from 2009 to 2022.

Sinkevičienė said she had communicated with Navickienė on professional matters since 2013, when she worked as an aide to the mayor of Kaunas District Municipality and took part in working groups related to events, publicity and other joint projects.

“The most intensive period of our professional cooperation was from 2016 to 2018, when I worked at the Kaunas District Tourism and Business Information Centre,” Sinkevičienė told BNS.

She said the Raudondvaris estate complex is also home to the Kaunas District Tourism and Business Information Centre, the Kaunas District Museum, a civil registry office, businesses operating from an arts incubator and a restaurant. Communication between the heads and employees of these organisations, as well as initiating and implementing joint projects and participating in events, was a regular part of their work, she said.

According to Sinkevičienė, one of the information centre’s activities was to raise awareness of Raudondvaris estate by distributing information, creating content for tourists and local residents, and initiating educational programmes, tours and other activities.

“Over those years, we implemented more than one initiative together, so Snieguolė Navickienė had the opportunity to see my work and professional abilities in practice,” Sinkevičienė said.

She was hired by the estate’s director at the time and began working as a public relations specialist in December 2018. Sinkevičienė said her work included communicating information about events and initiatives, preparing advertising and other information about the estate, and producing a game and other promotional material.

She cited communication about July 6 events, the lighting of the Christmas tree and Christmas activities, as well as information and visual material for February 16 commemorations, Family and Autumn festivals, Civil Servants’ Day, professional celebrations, international festivals, exhibitions, educational activities and other events.

Sinkevičienė said she does not have contact details published on the estate’s website because she is not the institution’s press representative and communicating with the media was not among her duties.