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The project was started by the Ministry of Culture when I. Veliutė worked on it, and is being implemented by the Martynas Mažvydas National Library.
According to the library, I. Veliutė will coordinate “cultural education development activities” in the project, which aims to improve Cultural Passport services and create a special administration platform.
The former deputy minister, BNS, said that while working in the ministry, she did not contribute to the preparation of the project, as this was not her area of responsibility.
He acknowledged that, as Vice Minister, he had cooperated with the National Library and other institutions dependent on the Ministry, as well as with all the previous leadership of the Ministry.
More former ministry staff
In addition to the Deputy Minister, Gabija Čepulionytė, former Counselor to Minister Mindaugas Kvietkauskas, and Jana Mikulevič, Head of the Division of Public Relations and Strategic Communication, are working with the Deputy Minister on the project “Modernization of the cultural education system”.
G. Čepulionytė will coordinate the “cultural education interventions” and J. Mikulevič will be responsible for public relations.
After working at the Ministry, J. Mikulevič also got a job at the Lithuanian Film Center under the Ministry and heads the Department of Film Distribution, Information and Heritage there. This center is run by Laimonas Ubavičius, former Chancellor of the Ministry.
Giedrė Čistovienė, head of the library’s project management department responsible for implementing the project, informed BNS that the former ministry employees were employed in January this year and had fixed-term employment contracts.
It also stated that I. Veliutė, G. Čepulionytė and J. Mikulevič were employed in the project according to their skills and experience.
“The employees were recruited for non-competitive positions according to the description of the selection procedure for the staff of the National Library Martynas Mažvydas of Lithuania, after evaluating the skills and professional experience of the candidates,” said G. Čistovienė.
The Seimas committee raised questions
This week, the project was also presented in the Seimas Culture Committee, its members had doubts about a possible ethical violation.
“I just want to ask if there are former politically trusted officials, ministry employees in that project. Isn’t this a covert extension of your influence or work in the field of culture? “Asked the committee chairman, Vytautas Juozapaitis.
Who is working on this project? How much money is being spent on wages? ”, He added.
The MP was informed that former Vice Minister I. Veliutė is working on the project, but the committee has not released a more precise list of project personnel.
The Minister of Culture Simonas Kairys, who participated in the remote meeting, said she was aware of the situation.
“Yes, we have a situation where we find three people with this project, of whom there was political trust, one – no, but it is obvious that they are involved in this project,” said S. Kairys.
The situation is also clarified by the ethics officers.
The Main Official Ethics Commission (COEC) has received a notification about the employment of I. Veliutė in the library, information is currently being collected, but the investigation has not yet started.
“The Commission has received a report on former Vice Minister I. Veliutė and the report indicates that one of the areas under her supervision was the library activity in December last year, and that she currently works at the National Library,” said the spokeswoman for the COEC, Eglė Ivanauskaitė. he told BNS.
“The question of the so-called cooling period is raised,” he added.
According to the COEC representative, the person who reported the situation is also considering that I. Veliūtė could have created a job for her.
The report also claims that the former vice minister may have created a job for himself by coordinating a project developed by the former government as part of the DNA Plan for the Future Economy, but the notifier said he did not know how directly the former vice minister was. involved in the project. “, – confirmed a representative of the COEC.
He also added that the Ministry of Culture is requesting additional documents, an issue the ethics guard intends to consider next week.
“The Commission has asked the Ministry of Culture to provide additional information on the circumstances indicated in the report and will consider the issue at a meeting next week,” said E. Ivanauskaitė.
According to the COEC representative, the one-year “cool-down” requirement applies if “a person has directly prepared, discussed, or made decisions about the supervision or control, financing, or assets of the legal entity in which they intend. work during the last year of your job ”.
G. Čistovienė, representative of the National Library, said that none of the former employees of the Ministry contributed to the development of the project.
“As far as we know, none of the employees listed in the Ministry of Culture was directly responsible for supervising cultural education and developing DNA action concepts and allocating funds, that is, they did not actually develop the project,” said the head of the National. Library Project Management Department.
“It is not my area of responsibility”
Former Deputy Minister I. Veliutė stated that she had not contributed to the preparation of the project, as it was not her area of responsibility.
“I did not work on the development of the concept itself or on obtaining funding, and I did not make decisions about the choice of the institution where the project will be implemented. That was not my area of responsibility. At the moment, the functions are certainly not managerial, but largely unrelated to my previous responsibilities as deputy minister, ”he said.
I. Veliutė stated that while working in the Ministry, he cooperated closely with all institutions subordinate to the Ministry without exception, including the National Library, but this was done by the entire former leadership of the Ministry.
“I can only remind you that the activities of the national agencies are very complex, they work with all the ministry’s management and specialists, depending on the issue, and the heads of the national agencies report directly to the Minister of Culture,” he added. said the former deputy minister.
“I, like all the former leadership of the Ministry, worked closely with all the institutions under the Ministry of Culture, including the National Library, without exception, otherwise it would be impossible to survive the first quarantine and create a new legal framework for run as smoothly as possible, “he added.
The Vice Minister was in charge of cultural heritage policy issues and memory institutions, digitization and dissemination of cultural content in the Ministry.
I. Veliutė also stated that the experience and skills available will allow a qualitative contribution to the ongoing project.
“I have no doubt that I can contribute to the quality modernization of the cultural education platform with my existing skills and experience in project and risk management, which is the main reason why I agreed to work on it, I hope that the management of the ministry I appreciate it, “
He said that he was sensitive to public and private conflicts of interest, but recalled that the COEC had not yet launched an investigation into his behavior.
“Until now no one has officially informed me of any investigation, so I ask you to be discreet and not jump to conclusions … I am no longer a public person,” said I. Veliutė.
Project coordination took time
According to G. Čistovienė, the aforementioned project was supposed to start in September last year, but “due to the long inter-institutional coordination of the agreement”, the agreement was not signed until the end of last year.
According to the library representative, due to the uncertain start of the project, the formation of the team took a long time, but a “selective meeting of candidates” was organized.
“Candidates with more skills were invited to work on the project, taking into account the experience gained in project and risk management,” said G. Čistovienė.
According to her, after the contract was signed, some of the invited candidates refused to work on the project, leading to re-election.
A total of 16 applicants participated in the selection, of which seven passed. All staff currently working on the project have high competencies that are necessary to manage the project at this level, ”said a representative from the library.
According to her, a project of this level needs the most professional specialists who have the necessary experience, because the project is due to be implemented by the end of this year.
“The project is very risky due to the scope of activities and the short implementation period, until December 31 of this year. Due to the complexity of the project, there is no time to learn, it is necessary to act immediately,” said G Čistovienė.
“Any experienced project manager would confirm that a project of this level requires the most professional with sufficient management experience in the field of cultural and educational policy,” he added.
The objective of the project to modernize the cultural education system is to improve the Cultural Passport program and create a cultural education administration platform through which the Cultural Passport services would be provided.
The project is part of the DNA Plan for the Economy of the Future, with a budget of 2.5 million euros. euros. This is more than half of what was planned for the entire Culture Passport program. It has been allocated 4 million this year. euros.
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