Lithuanian president voices confidence in PM, urges Vilnius to seek late payment interest

VILNIUS - Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda says he still trusts Prime Minister Gintautas Palucas, but urges the Vilnius authorities to demand interest from the PM for late compensation for damages in the so-called rat case.

"You know, I still have reason to trust the prime minister, but I am waiting, as I have said many times, for the conclusions of the relevant services. And, above all, I am waiting for the prime minister's answers to all the questions, because it is actually becoming no longer quite acceptable when every day we hear some new circumstances," the president told reporters in Vilnius on Monday.

"I have told him that the answers to the questions should not give rise to another 50 questions. At the moment, I see that those additional questions are being asked," he added.

As BNS reported earlier, in 2012, the Supreme Court of Lithuania ruled that Paluckas had abused his office because, as director of administration at Vilnius Municipality, he patronized a municipal company that provided rodent extermination services. At the time, Paluckas was given a suspended two-year prison sentence and ordered to pay around 16,500 euros in damages.

Paluckas completed the repayment of damages in the case this July, Laisves TV and the Siena investigative journalism center reported on Sunday.

According to data provided by the capital's authorities to Siena and Laisves TV, the damages were to be paid within a year of the court ruling taking effect. However, Valdas Klimantavicius, then director of the municipal administration, granted Paluckas' request to postpone the enforcement of the judgment until the end of 2015.

In his request, the current prime minister proposed an initial payment of 15,000 litas - around 4,340 euros - and offered to pay the rest in monthly installments of about 3,000 litas - around 867 euros - by the end of 2015.

Klimantavicius granted the request in July 2013, stating that if Paluckas failed to make payments or missed deadlines, the municipality would have to initiate debt recovery proceedings.

However, no such action was taken, even though Paluckas did not follow through on the payment plan.

According to the municipality, Paluckas began paying the damages in May 2014, when he transferred 40,000 litas (11,580 euros) to the city. Most of the money, as confirmed by Justinas Argustas, the prime minister's advisor, came in cash from the savings of Paluckas' family and close relatives.

After that payment, the prime minister still owed over 17,000 litas (4,900 euros), which he transferred to the municipality on July 8 this year.

According to the journalists who carried out the investigation, the payment was made almost a week after Siena and Laisves TV submitted public questions to the prime minister, including questions about the payment of damages in the "rat case".

Argustas told the journalists that it had been "a human error" that the prime minister had since corrected.

"Vilnius Municipality should demand interest for not paying the required amount on time, because money has a price, money has interest and it must be paid. So we hope that the amount, if they calculate it, and I hope they will calculate it, will be adequate," the president said, adding that in general this situation "seems strange" to him.

"Usually the system works in such a way that people who have not paid a small bill receive threatening letters from bailiffs, which, when you read them, make you fear what might happen. And here, for years, there has been a rather large sum of money hanging around," Nauseda said. "Debt is something that should probably always be remembered."

On the other hand, the president stressed that the Vilnius authorities' control system "has also proved to be flawed".

Following earlier media reports, the Special Investigation Service (SIS) and the Financial Crime Investigation Service (FCIS) have launched pre-trial investigations into the prime minister and companies linked to him.

"The conclusion of the services and authorities responsible for assessing the circumstances will, I hope, be presented in the coming days. This would reduce the period of uncertainty, which is not good for anyone, especially for our political system," Nauseda said.

"When the conclusions are presented, if they are unfavorable to the prime minister, I think, as an honorable person, he will make that decision himself, without waiting for others to urge him to do so. And if they are favorable, then hopefully this story might come to some logical conclusion," he added.

The FCIS is looking into how a 200,000-euro loan issued six months ago by the national development bank ILTE was used by Garnis, a company partly owned by Paluckas.

Last week, the agency questioned Paluckas as a witness in the probe.

The SIS launched a separate probe in response to another investigative report that raised questions about Sagerta, a company Paluckas partly owned a decade ago, as well as loans, real estate purchases and ties to businessman Darijus Vilcinskas.