Professor says LED tender prioritised quality and efficiency

A lighting expert testified in a Šiauliai corruption case that energy efficiency and product quality were the main priorities in a public tender for LED streetlights, LRT reported. He said the specifications were designed to allow as many suppliers as possible to compete.

Vilnius University professor Pranciškus Vitta told the court that factors such as a light’s weight, impact resistance and thermal image were not of exceptional importance. His role, he said, was limited to preparing technical specifications and answering suppliers’ complaints.

Šiauliai Mayor Artūras Visockas and businessmen Danielius Krinickis and Rytis Maliukevičius are accused of abuse of office and attempted fraud over the tender. Visockas also faces a separate charge of influencing a witness. The three deny the charges.

According to investigators, the alleged aim was for Infes technologijos to win the contract. Prosecutors allege that Visockas sought confidential information and passed it to the company’s then-shareholder Krinickis, while Maliukevičius was asked to change the tender conditions to favour a particular company.

Vitta said he prepared the technical specifications in consultation with the city-owned Šiaulių gatvių apšvietimas, now called Šiaulių šviesa, which hired him as an expert from 2020 to 2023. He said he did not take part in later changes to the specifications and did not coordinate his work with Maliukevičius, who was hired to advise on the legal side of the procurement.

The professor said the goal was to buy high-quality, energy-saving lights while avoiding specifications that would unnecessarily narrow the range of suitable products. He also said he wanted to guard against poor-quality products that could cause problems during operation and repairs.

Vitta testified that some conditions he had not proposed restricted competition. After an operation by the Special Investigation Service and the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, the tender conditions were amended. The lights were then bought in the first attempt, for 640,000 euros less, the article said.

Vitta said his work was confined to the technical specifications, which were also reviewed with the buyer’s specialists.