LRT council to reconsider director’s violation ruling

Lithuania’s public broadcaster LRT says its council will reconsider a ruling that its director, Monika Garbačiauskaitė-Budrienė, committed a breach after granting her request to review the decision.

The matter will be discussed at a closed council meeting on Monday. Council chair Mindaugas Jurkynas told the ELTA news agency that the law gives the director 10 days to request a review, making Monday the final day to do so.

The council ruled in late September that Garbačiauskaitė-Budrienė had committed a breach because publicly available reports on programme purchases did not disclose data about individual service providers. In early October, she said on Facebook that she disagreed with the decision and asked the council to reconsider it.

The breach was not deemed gross

Jurkynas said in September that the council had decided to issue her a warning. If she commits a similar breach within the next year, the council would consider terminating her employment contract. The council did not classify the breach as gross misconduct, which could be grounds for her dismissal.

After the council’s decision, Garbačiauskaitė-Budrienė called it psychological pressure and said she did not know whether she would take the matter to court.

The Prosecutor General’s Office identified the disclosure issue in June. In early July, the council unanimously instructed LRT’s administration to correct the issues identified by prosecutors and explain their causes.

In June, parliament adopted amendments to the LRT law stating that the director can be dismissed before the end of her term with the support of at least two-thirds of all council members if she no longer meets integrity requirements or commits a gross breach of her duties. Most of the amendments are due to take effect in several years, but the new dismissal procedure took effect when the law was signed.