Ethics commission to investigate former manor director’s hiring of her son

Lithuania’s Chief Official Ethics Commission will investigate whether former Raudondvaris Manor director Snieguolė Navickienė properly avoided conflicts of interest after hiring her son, LRT reported. The commission voted on Wednesday to open an inquiry into whether she recused herself from decisions concerning him.

Navickienė led the manor from 2009 until 2026, when she became deputy mayor of Kaunas district. She hired her son in 2022.

The ethics watchdogs began examining the matter after Kaunas District Municipality asked them to investigate the manor’s public procurement and the actions of Egidijus Morkūnas, a deputy director responsible for facilities who had been removed from his duties. Conservative MP Mindaugas Lingė had earlier said the manor signed procurement contracts with a company linked to Morkūnas.

From 2022 to 2026, the manor signed 29 non-competitive procurement contracts with Morkūnas’s company, worth more than 71,000 euros in total. After the information emerged, the municipality temporarily suspended acting director Kotryna Inga Morkūnaitė and Morkūnas from their duties.

Kaunas District Mayor Valerijus Makūnas also referred possible violations at the manor to the Financial Crime Investigation Service and the Public Procurement Office. The latter said it would not assess the contracts because of their low value.

Politicians and the media began paying closer attention to hiring and procurement at the public institution after an LRT investigative report raised questions about a possibly fictitious job at the manor held by Prime Minister’s wife Aistė Sinkevičienė. The report also found that other people connected to Social Democrats had been hired there.

Makūnas set up a working group to examine possible irregularities in hiring. The Kaunas District Municipality administration has also launched an internal investigation concerning Sinkevičienė, head of its Public and International Relations Department, and a senior specialist in the department.

The department was established after Sinkevičienė returned from maternity leave. She became its head without a competition, reportedly as a civil servant whose performance had exceeded expectations. Sinkevičienė has denied that her husband influenced her career in the municipal administration or at the manor, citing her professional achievements and long service in Kaunas district’s public sector.

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