Olekas to meet parliamentary chancellor over hiring concerns

Lithuanian Parliament Speaker Juozas Olekas will meet Parliamentary Chancellor Algirdas Stončaitis after the Special Investigation Service raised concerns about potentially non-transparent hiring procedures in the parliamentary administration, LRT reported.

“I will meet with the chancellor, who was recently on holiday. We will discuss what action needs to be taken,” Olekas told reporters on Monday.

Olekas said the parliament’s board had asked the Special Investigation Service to provide more specific information about the potentially non-transparent hiring procedures.

“We asked again what specific action is being sought. It seems to me that the administration is also reviewing these situations. Since there were no specific submissions regarding potentially non-transparent hiring, only general ones, there have been no answers so far,” Olekas said.

In June, the Special Investigation Service informed the parliament’s board that the administration’s hiring procedures may involve systemic breaches and risks.

According to law enforcement information, the concerns relate not only to the formal organisation of recruitment competitions but also to their implementation, including the publication of information, declarations of impartiality, the objectivity of evaluations and the preservation of audio recordings.

The service also highlighted possible abuse of an exception allowing people to be hired without a competition for up to six months, potentially bypassing standard procedures before decisions are made about their further careers in the parliamentary administration.

It also pointed to risks in public procurement, saying employees who participated in or initiated procedures may have had undeclared personal, financial or contractual ties with suppliers.

As personnel administration is the direct responsibility of the parliamentary chancellor, the service urged the board not to leave the matter solely to the chancellor’s discretion in order to ensure objectivity. It asked the board to initiate an independent assessment of recruitment and related procedures covering the period since June 2024 and inform the service of the decisions taken.