Power company loses its head

VILNIUS - So far 1999 has been anything but a bowl of cherries for Lietuvos Energija, the Lithuanian power company. Criticism of the company's inability to collect debts and coordinate a potential international deal with the Lithuanian government has convinced its boss, Virmantas Jurgaitis, to clean out his desk and walk away July 15.

"Jurgaitis [informed] the board that he wanted to leave," Ministry of Economics energy development department chief Jonas Kazlauskas told TBT. "I don't know for sure, but I think he probably had a conversation with the Minister [of Economics Eugenijus Maldeikis] beforehand and they agreed on this."

Jurgaitis landed the job as head of Lietuvos Energija this past January where he was immediately faced with the problem of collecting unpaid debts from cash-strapped Belarus for electricity exports. The failure to collect the debt, which has been bobbing around the $120 million mark lately, was what prompted government officials to toss criticism at Jurgaitis, according to Kazlauskas.

"The economics minister and the ministry were not happy about the financial situation [of Lietuvos Energija]," Kazlauskas said.

Other factors have also served to blacken Jurgaitis' half year record as head of Lietuvos Energija. In late May, Jurgaitis met with energy company officials of Estonia, Latvia, Russia and Belarus in Vilnius to hammer out a cooperation agreement.

But upon learning of the deal, Lithuanian government officials forbid Jurgaitis' team from signing on because they said it was integrating Lithuania in the wrong direction. Irene Degutiene, acting prime minister at the time, also complained that the government had not been consulted about the deal. In the end, one of Lietuvos Energija's deputy directors was fired while Jurgaitis was let off with a warning.

Though some news reports have put the coordination flaw as the top reason for Jurgaitis' downfall, the Ministry of Economics maintains the problem with Belarus was the biggest problem.

"This issue [of the energy deal] is not the most important in this case," said Kazlauskas. "In a meeting of the Ministry [of Economics] Jurgaitis was criticized more about the situation with Belarus. The deadline set for collecting the debt was July 15 and nothing happened by that date."

According to the local mass media, Jurgaitis said the problems faced by the company "were not simple" and that half a year's time was "too short" to accomplish the required goals.

News reports put Bronius Cicenas, currently the director of the Vilniaus Silumos Tinklas heating network, as Jurgaitis' likely replacement. Kazlauskas indicated that the final decision as to who will be Lietuvos Energija's new head will be made this week.