Urbonaitė says Sinkevičius is downplaying dissertation plagiarism

Political scientist Rima Urbonaitė says Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius is trying to downplay plagiarism found in his doctoral dissertation. An ethics commission at ISM University of Management and Economics gave him six months to correct violations but did not recommend starting a procedure to revoke his degree, LRT reported.

Urbonaitė said Sinkevičius had not used the word “plagiarism” in his written or spoken responses, instead referring to comments and violations. In her view, he was minimizing what she called the established fact of theft, which she said had occurred more than once in the dissertation.

She also cited other episodes, including appointments of people close to the Social Democrats to various positions in Raudondvaris. Urbonaitė said Sinkevičius had distanced himself from that matter rather than calling for a full investigation. She also referred to the receipt case and the purchase of a plot at auction in Jonava while he was mayor, saying questions about the purchase remained unanswered.

The ethics commission accepted its first complaint in August. After receiving two more complaints, the university extended its review until October 30. When five instances cited by the complainant were confirmed, the commission examined the entire dissertation. It then reviewed 55 significant overlaps or cases requiring further assessment, and found that eight sources cited in the dissertation were missing from its bibliography.

Sinkevičius said he would follow the commission’s findings and prepare a publicly available correction addendum. He said the doctoral committee considered that the dissertation retained scientific value and that the commission viewed starting a degree-revocation procedure as disproportionate. He said he did not dispute the citation and source-labeling violations.

Sinkevičius defended his doctoral dissertation at ISM in 2015.