MP urges probe into alleged pressure on payments agency chief

Opposition Conservative MP Angelė Jakavonytė has asked parliament’s Anticorruption Commission to investigate alleged pressure by Agriculture Minister Kęstutis Mažeika on National Paying Agency (NMA) director Fortunatas Dirginčius, who has been temporarily suspended. LRT reported the request on Tuesday.

LRT’s Investigations Department previously reported that Lithuanian Agriculture Council chairman Jonas Vilionis asked Dirginčius to review a 140,000-euro penalty imposed on a farmer in Elektrėnai district and lift the seizure of all the farmer’s assets. Dirginčius refused, saying the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania had upheld the penalty.

Dirginčius later attended a meeting at the Agriculture Ministry that was not listed on the minister’s official schedule. Mažeika, Vilionis and the farmer were also present. Vilionis allegedly continued to press for the farmer’s case to be resolved.

Jakavonytė asked the commission to assess whether arranging an unlisted meeting with interested parties to discuss a specific farmer’s penalty, and inviting the NMA chief who had made an unfavourable decision, amounted to unlawful pressure. She also asked whether a demand to overturn a court-upheld decision, if one was made, could indicate a criminal offence.

The MP questioned whether Dirginčius’s temporary suspension could have been retaliation and asked Mažeika to clarify whether anyone at the meeting had asked for the NMA penalty against the farmer to be changed.

Mažeika said on Tuesday that he had answered all the questions raised. “I have no doubt that if there is an inquiry to the Anticorruption Commission or somewhere else, I think I have said everything. What matters to me is that every farmer exists,” he told parliament. He has previously said the meeting was an impromptu discussion to hear about the situation and that he did not put pressure on the NMA chief.

The Financial Crime Investigation Service is conducting a pre-trial investigation related to the NMA and has carried out searches at the agency. Dirginčius has witness status in the investigation. In September, the Agriculture Ministry temporarily suspended him over a possible disciplinary breach and began an internal inquiry. Karolis Tvaskus, head of the ministry’s Property Management Division, is currently acting director.

NMA deputy director Tomas Orlickas has been named a suspect in the investigation and dismissed from his post. Investigators suspect that civil servants may have deliberately failed to perform their duties, causing substantial material and non-material damage to Lithuania’s and the European Union’s financial interests.