Prosecutor finds hearse fuel receipt in Birštonas mayor’s expenses

Birštonas Mayor Nijolė Dirginčienė included a fuel receipt for fuel put into a hearse belonging to Šilutės Komunalininkas in her expense reports, prosecutors and the Special Investigation Service (STT) found. LRT reported the development, citing the news agency ELTA, after a hearing at the Lithuanian Court of Appeal in Vilnius on Wednesday.

Prosecutor Darius Valkavičius told the court that investigators had identified the owners of the bank cards used for the receipts in the case, except for cards issued by banks in Switzerland and Austria. He said the company had a receipt for fuel put into its hearse but could not say who had been driving the vehicle at the time. The prosecutor said the company’s director would need to be called to court.

Dirginčienė said she was shocked by the information and could not explain it without checking the dates. She is from Šilutė and acknowledged that she visits her hometown.

The case concerns expenses from 2019 and 2020, when Dirginčienė used 27 bank cards to pay for fuel. Receipts included in her work expenses belonged to her husband, two sons, daughter-in-law, a Social Democratic municipal councillor and the councillor’s sister, who works for the municipality. Prosecutors asked the appeal court to allow them and the STT to identify additional cardholders using other methods.

A Kaunas Regional Court acquitted Dirginčienė in January, finding insufficient evidence that she had improperly used public funds and saying she might have made an honest mistake. It also found the pre-trial investigation incomplete. Prosecutor Valkavičius appealed the ruling.

The Court of Appeal heard testimony on Wednesday from a municipal budget and accounting department employee, Dirginčienė’s husband and her daughter-in-law. The prosecutor has asked the court to summon other newly identified cardholders whose receipts were included in the mayor’s expense reports.

Dirginčienė, who has suspended her membership in the Social Democratic Party, is accused of appropriating more than €6,300 in municipal funds. She has repaid more than €5,000, and the prosecutor is seeking a further €678. He has asked the court to convict her of misappropriation of municipal funds, fraud and document forgery, impose a €10,000 fine, and bar her from elected or appointed municipal positions for four years.