Public Procurement Office declines Raudondvaris manor review

The Public Procurement Office will not assess Raudondaris manor’s purchases because most were low-value procurements, while the Special Investigation Service will decide by September 24 whether to launch a pre-trial investigation, LRT reported.

After an initial review of the documents, the Public Procurement Office decided not to assess the procurements carried out by the public institution Raudondvaris Manor, its representative Evelina Butkutė-Lazdauskienė told BNS this week.

She said most of the purchases were low-value procurements that could be carried out verbally by contacting a single supplier.

According to Butkutė-Lazdauskienė, current legislation does not prohibit a non-public procurement from involving a supplier whose employee or shareholder is related by family ties to an employee of the procuring organisation, provided that the employee does not make decisions related to the purchases. However, the Public Procurement Office is critical of such arrangements.

The office recommends checking, before inviting a supplier to participate in a non-public procurement, whether the supplier is an employee of the procuring organisation. It also recommends assessing whether the supplier is linked to members of the organisation’s management or supervisory bodies, shareholders, or legal entities they own or control.

Organisations should also determine whether personal, professional, financial or other ties between the supplier and the organisation could create a conflict of interest or the appearance of one, she said.

“This requirement is not currently mandatory, but the office is seeking powers to approve procurement organisation and control procedures that would be binding on all procuring organisations,” Butkutė-Lazdauskienė said.

A draft amendment to the Public Procurement Law has been registered and is expected to be considered during the autumn session of the Seimas, Lithuania’s parliament.

Milda Rimkė, a representative of the Prosecutor General’s Office, said an appeal from Kaunas District Municipality concerning the circumstances of the Raudondvaris manor procurements had been forwarded to the Special Investigation Service, which is expected to make a procedural decision on whether to launch a pre-trial investigation.

Renata Keblienė, a representative of the Special Investigation Service, told BNS that the decision should be made next week.

“After assessing the data collected during the clarification process, an appropriate procedural decision will be made: either a decision not to launch a pre-trial investigation or a decision to launch one. The deadline for making the procedural decision is September 24,” Keblienė said.

BNS previously reported that conservative lawmaker Mindaugas Lingė had said Raudondvaris manor entered into procurement contracts with a company linked to deputy director Egidijus Morkūnas.

According to Lingė’s calculations, between 2022 and 2026 the manor signed 29 non-competitive public procurement contracts with the deputy director’s company, with a combined value of more than 71,000 euros.

Following the reports, Kaunas District Municipality announced that the manor’s acting director, Kotryna Inga Morkūnaitė, and deputy director Morkūnas had been suspended from their duties.

Kaunas District Mayor Valerijus Makūnas also appealed to the Public Procurement Office and the Financial Crime Investigation Service over possible violations at the manor. The latter forwarded the appeal to the prosecutor’s office, which in turn referred it to the Special Investigation Service.

BNS reported that scrutiny of employment and procurement at Raudondvaris manor intensified after an LRT investigation raised questions about the possible fictitious employment of Prime Minister’s spouse Aistė Sinkevičienė at the manor.

The investigation also found that more people connected to the Social Democratic milieu had been employed at the manor. After the reports, Makūnas set up a working group to examine possible violations related to employment.

Kaunas District Municipality’s administration has also launched an internal investigation into the head of its Public and International Relations Division, where Sinkevičienė also works, and the division’s chief specialist.

The Seimas Anti-Corruption Commission has decided to assess possible systemic nepotism at state level, including the situation at Raudondvaris manor.