Ethics commission seeks more information on minister’s potential conflict

Lithuania’s Chief Official Ethics Commission will gather more information before deciding whether to investigate Finance Minister Taurimas Valys over a possible conflict of interest, LRT reported.

The commission received a request from Conservative MP Mindaugas Lingė to assess whether Valys properly declared his private interests and should have recused himself from decisions related to credit unions.

The request concerns Valys’s previous work at Šeimos kredito unija, a credit union whose board chairman and head of administration is his brother, Žygimantas Valys. Lingė also asked the commission to assess whether Valys’s role in exercising the state’s shareholder rights in ILTE, the national development bank, creates a conflict of interest. Šeimos kredito unija is an ILTE financial intermediary and receives support measures.

The commission said it would seek additional information from the Finance Ministry, ILTE and the credit union.

Valys denies a potential conflict. He says his ties to the credit union have been publicly declared and that he fully withdrew from its activities after becoming finance minister. He also says the credit union led by his brother received no special privileges from the Finance Ministry and that he made no decisions as minister intended to improve its position.