Financial wrongdoings of Lithuanian mayors

VILNIUS - On Oct. 14, Loreta Grauziniene, Labor Party MP and chairwoman of the Lithuanian Parliament’s Committee on Audit, announced numerous wrongdoings of 21 Lithuanian mayors. They were taking payments from their municipalities for participating in Holy Mass, attending charity events and various celebrations during the weekends. It was considered as ‘work on weekends’ and, therefore, they were paid for such ‘work’ with double their regular salary.
“There is even a double salary payment for an excursion to the Hill of Crosses. The Committee on Audit will propose a draft which would ban such payments,” Grauziniene said.

Albinas Ezerskis, who was mayor of Silale region until 2011, even took a double payment for his trip to the horse races in Sartai, according to the Lithuanian Parliament’s Committee on Audit.
Ricardas Malinauskas, Social Democrat mayor of the flourishing resort of Druskininkai and president of the Lithuanian Municipalities’ Association, defended the accused mayors. According to him, the average monthly salary of a Lithuanian mayor is 4,000 litas (1,158 euros) and this is not enough for a normal life. “I get 3,500 litas after taxes. Do you think it is enough to feed my family and to survive?” Malinauskas asked rhetorically, speaking to Lietuvos Ryto TV.

Andrius Kupcinskas, former mayor of Kaunas from 2007-2011, took double salary payments for participation in the inauguration of President Dalia Grybauskaite, as well as attending celebrations of Independence Day and Catholic feasts. He received 36,000 litas for such work. After it became public, Kupcinskas, who is a member of the ruling Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats, returned to the municipality one-fifth of this sum.

Grauziniene also stated that her committee will demand that Lithuanian ministries send her committee their reports about flights by their officials. Recently, she flew from Luxembourg, where she visited the EU Court of Auditors. Grauziniene, who was flying in an economy class seat, noticed some Lithuanian officials from the Foreign Ministry and Education Ministry, who were enjoying meals in business class, according to her. Such business class tickets are unnecessary spending of the Lithuanian budget money, according to Grauziniene. Andrius Mazuronis, member of the Lithuanian Parliament’s Committee on Audit, was flying from Luxembourg together with Grauziniene. Mazuronis confirmed her words. The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry stated that the tickets for economy premium, not business class, were bought for the mentioned officials and it was done only because such tickets were available, while the purchase of tickets for a later date would make the trip more expensive due to payments for the hotel in Luxembourg.