VILNIUS - Comments made by a prominent member of the ruling Social Democratic Party who was recently elected to the European Parliament have prompted suspicions that allegations of bribe-taking in Parliament are only part of a much larger system of corruption whereby political parties receive funding from off-the-books handouts doled out by big business.
In a July 26 interview with the daily Lietuvos rytas, MEP Aloyzas Sakalas asserted that the three parliamentarians accused of receiving bribes in exchange for influencing crucial pieces of legislation were most likely doing so on behalf of their parties.
Dubbing the shady payment system a "black cash register," Sakalas said that news of charges against MPs Vytenis Andriukaitis, Vytautas Kvietkauskas, and Arvydas Vidziunas came as no surprise to most politicians, who regularly receive and pass on money from corporations to their party leadership.
The three parliamentarians have resigned their seats in the Seimas (Lithuania's parliament), while a special commission formed to investigate the charges recommended on July 27 that prosecutors launch a pretrial inquiry into their actions.Sakalas, who accused parties of "money laundering" outright, said the arrangement was mutually beneficial to political parties, which are consistently under-funded, and businesses, which would prefer to remain anonymous contributors to influential politicians.
Sakalas, who chaired the first parliamentary commission that accused former President Rolandas Paksas of violating the constitution, angered many in his own party when he declared that "there's nothing to hide-such things have always existed in every party."
He further implicated the Social Democrats by implying that Andriukaitis, one of the party's most prominent figures, had most likely put the 95,000 litas (27,500 euros) he supposedly received from the Rubicon Group in the party's "black cash register."
"I certainly don't agree with him, and I'm sure that such things don't happen in our party," said Algimantas Salamakinas, chairman of the Seimas' commission on ethics and procedures and a fellow Social Democrat.
Nonetheless, legal experts and government watchdogs do not rule out the possibility that such an opaque yet cozy relationship between commercial and political interests was less the exception and more the rule in Lithuania.
"From a legal standpoint, I can't say for sure if this exists. But thinking along the lines of the evidence we've seen, I'd say it's possible," said Petras Ragauskas, assistant director of the Law Institute, an independent government institution whose members coordinate efforts with anti-corruption groups.
In Ragauskas' opinion, the "black cash register" scenario represents a threat to the entire democratic system of governance in Lithuania.
"If it does exist, it would be a complete tragedy. Given the already very low confidence people have in politicians, it could entirely erase their belief in the political system," he said.
In spite of the potentially dire consequences of such a prevalent illegal campaign-financing scheme, even the figures most ardently in support of fighting corruption disagree on how best to uproot it.
While Sakalas, who controversially publicized classified telephone conversations between Paksas and disgraced businessman Yuri Borisov that had been tapped by domestic intelligence officials, has advocated making as much information public as possible. Others have criticized this tactic.
Henrikas Mickevicius, director of the Human Rights Monitoring Institute, said that decisions such as the one made by a parliamentary commission to release transcripts of telephone conversations between MPs and Rubicon Group CEO Andrius Janukonis, are actually adding to the problem.
"I would almost call this a pro-corruption decision," said Mickevicius. "All it accomplishes is to send corruption further underground. Never again will a politician discuss such things over the telephone, meaning the authorities have lost a valuable tool they previously relied on."
The conversations, released to the press on July 16, record the MPs' discussing details of laws with Janukonis, who suggests meeting personally with the lawmakers.
The Seimas will hold a special session beginning Aug. 16 to decide what action, if any, will be taken against the parliamentarians under suspicion.
Prosecutors have stated their intention to press criminal charges once the Seimas is dissolved this autumn for elections and the MPs lose their immunity from prosecution.
