Seimo valdyba seeks clearer details from STT on hiring practices

The Seimas Board will request more specific information from the Special Investigation Service (STT) regarding potential systemic risks in hiring practices at the Seimas Chancellery, BNS reports.

Following a report from the STT about possible systemic risks in recruitment, the Board decided to seek clarification. Liberal MP Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, Deputy Speaker of the Seimas, stated after a Board meeting: “The decision is to contact the STT on behalf of the Board to request more precise information, as the current details are too vague. It is unclear what action to take.”

The Board also decided to approach the Public Management Agency to assess the situation regarding competitions and selections.

According to BNS, the STT had previously contacted the Seimas Board, asking it to evaluate the hiring procedures at the Seimas Chancellery. The STT letter states that from June 2024 to the present, there may have been systemic risks and procedural violations in the recruitment of civil servants, as well as in the selection and hiring of employees under employment contracts.

The STT suggests that potential violations may relate not only to the formal organisation of selections but also to specific procedures. These include compliance with the requirements for announcing and publicising selections, the formulation of selection or competition conditions, the possible unjustified application of exceptions when hiring individuals without selection or competition, the formation of selection committees, and the declaration of impartiality and potential conflicts of interest by committee members.

Other potential violations involve the objectivity of individual candidate assessments, the justification of evaluation results, the recording of selection results, the preservation of audio recordings or other data confirming the selection process, and the justification of final decisions on candidate hiring.

The STT also highlights a possible misuse of an exception in the hiring regulations, which allows bypassing the selection procedure for positions lasting no longer than six months. According to the STT, this exception may have been applied not only to temporary and objectively justified staffing needs but also as a way to hire individuals without standard selection procedures, with their further employment or appointment to other positions in the Seimas Chancellery decided later.

The STT has also received information about possible cases where individuals hired under employment contracts or to other positions in the Seimas Chancellery may have been involved in public procurement processes. These individuals may have acted as procurement initiators, experts, or in other roles related to procurement procedures without properly assessing potential conflicts of interest or other connections.

The STT asks the Seimas Board to evaluate the current hiring procedures and the connections of individuals hired since June 2024 under employment contracts with the management of public procurement processes in the Seimas Chancellery. Such connections could pose risks of corruption, conflicts of interest, or non-transparent decision-making, especially if the hired individuals participate in procurement initiation, technical specification preparation, procurement condition formulation, supplier offer evaluation, expert evaluation, winner selection, or contract execution supervision. This risk also applies if they have or had work, contractual, financial, personal, or other relationships with suppliers, intermediaries, subcontractors, or their representatives involved in public procurement.

The STT deems it necessary to determine whether such relationships were properly declared, whether conflict of interest prevention measures were taken, and whether these circumstances affected the transparency, objectivity, and justification of public procurement procedures and decisions.

The service also requests to be informed about any actions the Seimas has taken or plans to take in response to the received information.

Seimas Chancellor Algirdas Stončaitis told BNS on Wednesday that there is no basis to suspect the Seimas Chancellery of any wrongdoing.