Interior Ministry issues recommendations to reduce corruption risks among officers

The Interior Ministry has issued recommendations to strengthen corruption prevention and internal controls in the police following an official review of the police leadership’s actions, LRT reported.

On Friday, the findings of the review into the work of Police Department head and Police Commissioner General Arūnas Paulauskas were submitted to him. The review assessed how internal controls and corruption prevention measures were organised in the Police Department and how effectively they were implemented.

The Interior Ministry launched the review after 13 officers were detained during a pre-trial investigation. They included 10 police officers and three border guards suspected of cooperating with people involved in smuggling.

The review commission also assessed questions raised publicly about the police response to reports of possible corruption-related activities.

According to the ministry, the commission concluded that the police internal control and corruption prevention system should focus more closely on identifying the most significant corruption risks, prioritising them and applying targeted measures.

Information collected during individual investigations and inspections should be analysed more consistently and used when making decisions across the entire system, the ministry said. It also called for greater attention to smuggling risks and to regions where police officers may face a higher risk of unlawful influence.

The commission said that the effectiveness of anti-corruption measures should be assessed not only by their number but also by their actual impact on reducing corruption risks.

Interior Minister Martynas Katelynas backed the recommendations to complete the review and implement specific measures to strengthen the corruption prevention system and address organisational shortcomings.

The police commissioner general was advised to review the organisation of the Police Department’s corruption prevention system and base it more firmly on corruption risk analysis and prioritisation. The recommendations also call for priority areas to be identified, particularly the prevention and control of corruption-related offences linked to smuggling in the highest-risk regions.

The police should prepare targeted internal control and corruption prevention measures for those areas, establish clear criteria for assessing their effectiveness and regularly monitor the results. The recommendations also call for greater involvement by the Police Department leadership, including the commissioner general, in setting prevention priorities and overseeing their implementation.

They further recommend closer coordination of information and actions between criminal intelligence, internal control and other responsible units.

The Interior Ministry’s Corruption Prevention and Internal Investigations Division has been tasked with preparing a plan setting deadlines, progress and performance indicators, and reporting procedures for implementing the recommendations. The ministry will oversee their implementation.

Katelynas said the ministry would assess not only the response to identified corruption-related violations but also whether the police can detect systemic corruption risks in advance, apply genuinely effective preventive measures and continuously assess their results.

The minister said the need to treat smuggling as a priority had become particularly clear after the transportation of smuggled goods by meteorological balloons began in autumn 2025.