Conservatives weigh ethics complaint over prime minister’s wife’s hiring

LRT’s Investigations Department has reported on the hiring of Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius’s wife, Aistė Sinkevičienė, by Kaunas District Municipality and its subordinate institution Raudondvaris Manor. Conservative lawmaker Mindaugas Lingė said the party would consider referring the matter to the Chief Official Ethics Commission.

“We should certainly assess it and, after evaluating it in detail, I believe we will seriously consider such a possibility,” Lingė told ELTA.

He said the review should establish who made the decisions, what connections were involved and whether the process complied with the law. However, he added that laws did not always clearly cover such cases and that the matter also had a moral dimension, even if the actions had followed legal exceptions.

Lingė described the details revealed by the investigation as characteristic of the governing Social Democratic Party, accusing it of promoting and hiring its allies and appointing them to various positions where loyalty mattered more than competence.

Liberal Movement leader Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen said she hoped the investigation would lead to further scrutiny rather than remain only in headlines. She said the report raised questions about the Social Democrats’ attitude towards women and noted that members of the Seimas Anticorruption Commission were already taking action.

Čmilytė-Nielsen also said the law enforcement authorities might have grounds to investigate, after employees at the manor reportedly said they had not seen the prime minister’s wife at work and did not know that a special “secret press representative” position had been created.

Aurelijus Veryga, leader of the Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union, said all possible investigations would be carried out following LRT’s reports. He urged the public broadcaster to investigate the employment of the wives of lawmakers from all political parties, including cases in which they became hospital directors, with the same enthusiasm.

Veryga said there were more cases involving politicians’ relatives taking up positions, but not all of them attracted attention.

LRT reported on Wednesday that Sinkevičienė had become head of Kaunas District Municipality’s Public and International Relations Division without a competition.