Vilnius opposition asks prosecutors to investigate waste management decisions

Vilnius City Council opposition members have asked prosecutors to open a pretrial investigation into decisions that reshaped the city’s regional municipal waste management system, LRT reports.

In a statement, the opposition said it had appealed to the Vilnius Regional Prosecutor’s Office, asking it to assess whether officials exceeded their powers, abused their office or caused damage to the public interest.

The opposition said that after a long-term contract with a waste management operator was terminated, new service agreements were signed at substantially higher prices. According to publicly available data cited in the statement, the cost of waste management may have increased from 53.81 euros to about 130 euros per tonne.

Opposition members said the higher costs would eventually be reflected in waste management bills paid by Vilnius residents. They also questioned why decisions potentially having a financial impact of millions of euros and possibly increasing the waste management fee had not been considered by the city council.

“Residents of Vilnius were repeatedly told that the situation was stable. Yet today we see a completely different picture: a waste crisis, chaotic decisions and the risk that city residents will pay for all of it,” Vydūnas Sadauskas, a representative of the Vilnius City Council opposition, said. “If waste management costs have more than doubled, a natural question arises: who will be held responsible?”

LRT reported that VAATC terminated its contract with Energesman to operate the mechanical-biological treatment facilities about two weeks ago, citing the company’s difficulties in meeting its obligations.

Last Friday, the Vilnius District Court granted VAATC’s request to prohibit Energesman from obstructing the centre’s representatives from entering the territory of the Vilnius mechanical-biological treatment plant until a final court ruling. VAATC subsequently took over the plant’s operation.

Energesman, which had operated the plant, plans to appeal the court’s decision. VAATC says it did not take over the facility but regained control of its territory and equipment.

VAATC chief M. Švaikauskas said this week that the acceptance, sorting and treatment of the biodegradable portion of waste at the plant had been stabilised, although the situation remained difficult. He said the centre had agreed on waste sorting with Ecoservice, Ekonovus and Ekobazė, and planned to continue operating the plant independently later.

According to Švaikauskas, up to 40,000 tonnes of waste may currently be accumulated on the plant’s territory. He said the exact amount would become clear only after the area had been cleaned up and all the waste weighed.

Švaikauskas also said waste management prices for residents of the Vilnius region would not increase because of the crisis. VAATC plans to seek approximately 18 million euros in damages from Energesman and, if necessary, use its reserves, which he said amounted to 20 million euros. He added that prices could not rise under the approved procedure, which stipulates that costs incurred in the past cannot be included in the regional price in the future.

Energesman chief A. Blazgys, however, said the amount of waste at the plant had increased since VAATC took over its management last Friday.