Anti-corruption panel to weigh probe into social Democrats’ manor jobs

Lithuania’s Seimas Anti-Corruption Commission will decide on Wednesday whether to investigate the employment of ruling Lithuanian Social Democratic Party members at Raudondvaris Manor, an estate in Kaunas District, LRT reported.

Commission chairman Arvydas Anušauskas, a conservative, will propose launching the investigation. He previously told BNS that it would examine possible conflicts of interest and the use of funds. The commission plans to first request additional information from the municipality, he said.

A majority of the commission’s 12 members must support the proposal for the investigation to begin.

LRT’s Investigative Department reported last week that Raudondvaris Manor had become a workplace for people linked to the Social Democrats. Prime Minister’s wife Aistė Sinkevičienė also receives a second salary there, according to the report.

The report said that Aurelija, the wife of Valerius Makūnas, the Social Democratic mayor of the district, had also worked at the institution until several months ago. The mayor’s adviser Loreta Navakauskienė and her spouse work there as well, as does Jūratė Kuzmickaitė, an adviser to the education, science and sports minister in the Seimas. The son of the manor’s long-serving director, Snieguolė Navickienė, and other people linked to the ruling Social Democrats also work there, LRT reported.

Raudondvaris Manor receives most of its funding from the Kaunas District Municipality.

Seimas opposition representatives said the situation should be reviewed by the relevant authorities.

Sinkevičienė said she had been hired in accordance with the applicable procedure and that information made public about her employment was inaccurate. She said the manor did not publish her contact details because her duties did not involve providing comments to the media. She also said the Public and International Relations Department was established more than a year after she returned from maternity leave.

The prime minister said some claims about his wife’s employment did not reflect reality and had been distorted. President Gitanas Nausėda said the prime minister’s wife had the right to pursue a professional career and that her suitability for the job should be assessed based on her work, not her marriage to the prime minister.