Manager denies bribery over €3,000 Christmas gift

A construction manager accused of bribing a Lithuanian defence-system employee with €3,000, wine and snacks told a court he meant it as a Christmas gift to mark their good working relationship, LRT reported.

Evaldas Gudynas, a works manager and shareholder of Vilnius construction company Versiculus, denied giving a bribe at a hearing in the Kaunas District Court in Kaišiadorys on Thursday. He said he may have overestimated the relationship and acted inappropriately.

Prosecutor Darius Valkavičius asked Gudynas directly whether he had given a bribe. Gudynas replied that he had not. He acknowledged that he does not usually give such gifts and said the army employee had never asked him for one.

According to the case information, the bag was handed over last December near the Akropolis shopping and entertainment centre in Kaunas. It contained €3,000 in cash, a bottle of wine and snacks.

Gudynas said he had arranged the meeting and brought the gift to wish the employee a merry Christmas. He said the money was in an envelope containing 30 €100 notes, and that he considered the amount suitable. The two also discussed construction work, he said, and Gudynas collected documents from the employee, Ignas Šaudys.

Šaudys, a buildings maintenance engineer with the Lithuanian Armed Forces’ Logistics Command, previously told the court about the alleged payment. He said he reported it to his employer immediately. The meeting took place while work under the contract was not underway, Gudynas said, adding that the construction site was locked and there was no reason to meet there.

Gudynas said the cash was his personal money, which he kept at home to protect his family in case of war. He told the court that he now viewed his actions very negatively, saying he had not considered whether they were lawful at the time.

Charges in the case have been brought against Versiculus and Gudynas. The Special Investigation Service and prosecutors have said the evidence gives reasonable grounds to suspect that the payment was intended to secure favourable treatment when Šaudys assessed the company’s construction work under a public procurement contract with the Ministry of National Defence. The contract is worth more than €1.287 million.

The ministry received a report through its internal channel for reporting violations last December that a defence-system employee had allegedly been offered a bribe. The employee himself informed the ministry’s Corruption Prevention and Investigation Division.