Urbonaitė says Sinkevičius is downplaying plagiarism findings

An ethics commission at ISM University of Management and Economics found plagiarism and improper use of text in Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius’s doctoral dissertation. It gave him six months to correct the violations but did not recommend starting proceedings to revoke his degree, LRT reported.

Political scientist Rima Urbonaitė said the findings were a political blow to Sinkevičius, who she believes is playing down their significance.

“We see Sinkevičius not using the word ‘plagiarism’ in either his written or spoken communication. He talks about comments and violations, essentially trying to downplay the fact of theft, which has been established more than once in this work,” Urbonaitė said.

She compared his response with his handling of other controversies. Referring to appointments of people close to the Social Democrats to various posts in Raudondvaris, she said he had distanced himself from the matter rather than calling for a thorough investigation. Urbonaitė also cited the receipts case and Sinkevičius’s testimony in court about his wife never having a phone. She said questions also remained about his purchase of a plot of land at auction in Jonava while he was mayor.

ISM’s ethics commission began examining the first complaint in August. After receiving two more complaints, the university extended the review until October 30. Once five incidents cited by the complainant were confirmed, the commission checked the entire dissertation and examined 55 significant instances of similarity or cases requiring further assessment. It also found that eight sources cited in the dissertation were missing from its bibliography.

Sinkevičius said he would follow the commission’s findings and prepare a publicly available correction appendix. He said the doctoral committee considered the dissertation to retain its scientific value and that the ethics commission viewed initiating degree-revocation proceedings as disproportionate. He added that he did not dispute the citation and source-marking violations.

Sinkevičius received a bachelor’s degree in management and business administration from Vilnius University in 2007 and completed a bachelor’s degree in law at Mykolas Romeris University in 2008. He earned a master’s degree in marketing and management from ISM in 2009 and defended his doctoral dissertation there in 2015.