Half a year ago, thirteen ministers of the thirteenth Government were given commissions from the country's president to launch functions of the Executive Branch. Gintaras Furmanavicius was appointed as the head of the Ministry of the Interior. Since the first half of the year has come to an end, we were wondering how this politician has managed to coordinate the ministry's activity and solve growing problems.
You have been carrying the minister's portfolio for six months. Is it heavy?
I do not like paperwork and bureaucracy; therefore I do not carry many documents in my portfolio. I try to store and save documents in my computer. That is why my portfolio is not heavy.
To be serious, every work which you are trying to do honestly and with quality requires maximum conglomeration every day and every minute. It is not a new state for me, because for many years I have been working as a leader and my working day is longer than it should be.
Can you now tell us that a Minister's position gives a person something that cannot be gained at any other post?
When a person works in different workplaces he all the time gains new and interesting experience. To me the minister's post is in the first place a big responsibility, because Government's decisions and those of mine tangibly influence many aspects of our life.
Undoubtedly, a minister's work is complicated. It is a team play - the whole Government is a team, on the other hand - every Minister in his Ministry has his own team with which he solves tasks and problems every day. I am very lucky, because both of the above-mentioned teams are remitting and it is easy and interesting to work in both of them. Such a post gives a lot of interesting experience, forms the sense of collectivism and strategic thinking, requires constant analysis of big amounts of information, and quick finding of different solutions. It is also a unique opportunity to meet interesting people every day and communicate with them.
During the past six months, when you were the head of the Ministry of the Interior, what did you manage to essentially change?
I did not come to work to an empty place. Many different people governed the Ministry, with which we meet quite often, we talk about the work of the Ministry and we also communicate informally. To my belief, every leader tries to do something new and positive in governing the Ministry that is why there is no reason to make rapid and essential changes. Surely, like every structure, the Ministry is a "live" organism which must react to constantly changing surroundings. Changes are inevitable. Though I like the Lithuanian saying: measure seven times before cutting.
The main things I paid my colleagues attention to when I started working as a Minister, was the necessity to lower the amount of paperwork and to increase the speed of work. I think that some changes in particular fields were made, though there is still a lot of work.
Recently we have often been hearing about transgressions of inebriated officers. Society expects more than an apology from the Minister of the Interior Ministry about their non statutory actions. What is your position as minister?
Any non statutory actions performed by our officers hurt their colleagues and leaders; they also cause a deserved condemnation of the society. I really want to believe that the shame sown by police officers will make other colleagues think and react accordingly. The best example is the recent event during which the police chief of Kelme caught two of his workers himself, when the driver together with an investigator beside him were not in a sober condition. I think that critical point of view helps police to change to the best.
By the way, it is important to mention that the society mistakenly thinks that police officers are not penalized. This is not true. I can bravely claim that an officer who commits a crime is punished according to the law. Fortunately, there are not many officers who break the law and statute, but none of them is left unseen. From 13 thousand police officers, the transgressed ones are not making even half of a percent, but even a teaspoon of tar can spoil whole barrel of honey.
Meanwhile, the positive actions of police officers are mentioned maybe only once per year, during their professional celebrations. But these people often risk their health and even life rescuing and protecting others even in those circumstances where the officers' statute does not require that.
It is a shame, that we still have small part of lame officers, that we cannot appreciate people who constantly beautify the name of officer.
Public opinion polls still show that people in Lithuania do not feel safe. Is there any footing to thinking that the situation will change for the better in the nearest future?
Last year, the public opinion poll ordered by the Ministry of the Interior showed that 40 percent of questioned people feel safe in our country. We will decide later whether the situation will have changed for the best, when we ask people again. In the Public Security Development Strategy endorsed two years ago it was anticipated that by the year 2010 with the help of certain actions more than half of Lithuania's inhabitants would feel safe. To reach this aim, we are developing the system of communication with society and other social partners, which will encourage the society to participate in strengthening public security. The fight with organized crime, terrorism, and corruption is supported, the institutions of public security and their work is being modernized. Ministry of the Interior and institutions subject to it are taking part in implementing about 30 expedient programs, in which special means of increasing public security are implemented. It is hard to believe that such integrated reaching of goals would give no positive results.
One of the most important fields of the work of Ministry of the Interior is implementation of a program to fight against trafficking in human beings. Does the flow of "sex slaves" from Lithuania not show our systems inability to fight crime?
Vice versa. At last our country has reached such a level of political maturity when institutions fighting with organized crime show real results to the society. Besides, the increasing number of solved cases of trafficking in human beings can show not only the increasing number of crimes or a desperate fight with that, but also the effective work of officers. In the annual report organized for three years by the USA National department, Lithuania falls into the category of progressive countries of world paying a lot of the attention to the problem of trafficking in human beings.
On the other hand, Lithuania is a country not isolated from the outside world, but statistics show that the degree of trafficking in human beings is increasing in other countries as well.
The Ministry of the Interior pledges to render suggestions to the Government - how to decrease economic and social differences in regions. What has been done in this field?
This May, the Government endorsed the Region Activity Strategy till the year of 2013. This strategy makes assumptions to pursue coordinated national regional policy, to purposefully use the resources of EU Structural Funds for implementation of this policy during the years of 2007 - 2013.
While implementing the provisions of the strategy on the development of the regional centers of economic growth, Ministry of the Interior provides technical support to the chief administrations of Alytus, Marijampole, Taurage, Telsiai and Utena regions which are preparing renewed development plan projects.
Trying to reduce the gap between towns and villages, the resources of Structural Funds are used to establish internet approach centers which can be used for free by any member of a community. 1000 public internet approach centers are planned to be established by the year 2007. Only this spring 300 of such centers were established. I hope that very soon such centers will be visited not only by the village youth, but by elderly people as well, who will understand that by using this "window" they can easily find grain procurement prices and read newspapers, which are too expensive for village people to subscribe, and even make an appointment with a doctor.
A minister's tenure lasts four years. Is it possible to do something substantial during such a short period of time?
I will do everything in my power to increase the officers' authority and trust in them. I am a realist, though, and I understand that it is harder to change human resources than to adjust the system or technically renew it.
At this point, scientists of our country together with experts from Finland are developing Police Activity Strategy for the period until the year of 2010, which projects the essential changes of police work.
There are other tasks of national importance: integration into Schengen area, preparation of legal notes for direct elections of mayors, decreasing the inequality between separate regions of Lithuania.
It is obvious that problems and work, unlike Ministers, do not have tenures.