Ethics commission to weigh probe into Matjošaitytė and Endrijaitis

Lithuania’s Chief Official Ethics Commission will consider on Wednesday whether to open an investigation into a possibly undeclared relationship between election commission member Laura Matjošaitytė and State Tax Inspectorate chief Martynas Endrijaitis, LRT reported.

Communications specialist Karolis Žukauskas appealed to the commission. He previously wrote on Facebook that Matjošaitytė and Endrijaitis are a couple and live together. Žukauskas said his sources claimed they had kept the relationship from the public and had not listed each other in their private-interest declarations, as required by law for people in public service or equivalent positions.

Endrijaitis denied the claims, according to news outlet Delfi. In a response to the outlet, the State Tax Inspectorate said he knew Matjošaitytė as a public figure and had encountered her occasionally in the course of his duties. It also referred to a photograph published by Žukauskas showing the two at an official reception for Statehood Day. The inspectorate said Endrijaitis’s declaration contained no error and the information circulating was false.

Endrijaitis became head of the State Tax Inspectorate in July, having previously served as its deputy chief. Matjošaitytė is a lawyer and a member of both the Central Electoral Commission and the council of Lithuanian National Radio and Television.

The Central Electoral Commission, the Lithuanian Bar Association and the ethics commission are also investigating Matjošaitytė’s activities. A parliamentary motion to remove her from the electoral commission failed in a secret vote. Delfi has reported that she advised the Nemunas Dawn party on membership-fee issues before the parliamentary election and sought to conceal the consultation.