COEC favorable decision for Skvernelis: road investigation ends

The COEC clarified whether the decisions made to allocate financing for street asphalt works in the Vilnius district were not affected by possibly the Prime Minister’s private interests. The COEC also investigated whether, during the consideration and adoption of the aforementioned decisions, S. Skvernelis was not required to withdraw by law.

As Eglė Ivanauskaitė, a COEC spokeswoman, told Eltai earlier, COEC members are likely to make a decision during Thursday’s meeting. The verdict will be, he said, difficult to say, because everything will depend on the vote of 4 COEC members (one abstained from the decision).

Could you have known?

Edmundas Sakalauskas, president of the COEC, did not participate in the meeting because he withdrew from the discussion on this topic.

Tomas Čaplinskas, a COEC representative, presented the study conducted at the beginning of the COEC meeting. He recalled that the main objective of the investigation was the Government meeting of October 30, 2019.

“It appears that the Minister of Transport and Communications proposed to include this issue as an additional issue, the issue was included and a decision was made, and a list of funding objects was approved,” said T. Čaplinskas, a COEC representative, on the government meeting.

“The public had questions and doubts about whether the Prime Minister had no personal benefit from this decision? (…) The direction of the investigation was to determine all the circumstances: whether the person in question could have known, understood and voted for this list during the presidency of the government meeting on October 30, and if he had the obligation to avoid conflicts of interest, “said a representative of COEC.

He stressed that the resolution approved at the Government meeting does not mention the specific street where S. Skvernelis lives.

“During the investigation, documents from the Ministry of Transport and Communications that prepared the Government Resolution were compiled and the Government Chancellery requested it. From the explanations of the people who prepared this document … it is clear that this object is nowhere to be found on Upės Street, it is not mentioned, “said a COEC representative.

“The documents do not show that the Government resolution refers to the specific object we are discussing. The Ministry of Transport and Communications, as the editor of the resolution, says that the documents of the Vilnius District Municipality followed, requesting to increase funds on the basis of a protocol decision made in 2015 by the Government, which establishes the criteria according to which the funds were approved.

Two reasons to pave

According to T. Čapulis, the first requests from local residents to manage this street were recorded in 2013. However, not only active residents were one of the reasons for paving this street.

“As you know, the Vilnius district municipality also provided information that the Administration Security Department (VAD) requested to manage the highway in three letters, at least three times, in December 2016, as well as in June and October of 2019. (…) These two aspects: the active demands of the population and the SAD requests related to road safety and operation were among the criteria, ”explained the COEC representative.

This street has been included in the list of manageable streets in the Strategic Action Plan.

“It is claimed that there are two sources of financing: state or municipal funds. The municipality of Vilnius district said to the question posed by the commission how it was intended to guarantee financing, which would have covered the maintenance of the road with municipal funds,” he said. a representative of the COEC.

Maintenance and asphalting of the 1.6 km section of Upės Street were indicated.

“The Commission contacted the company that carried out the work during the investigation. The company replied that the work began on November 11, 2019 and ended on December 9, 2019. Those works began later than after the Government resolution” , said.

There are no indisputable facts.

Antanas Šenavavičius, member of the COEC, asked the researcher the question.

“Is there any indisputable fact in the material that the prime minister has known that those funds would be used to pave that street?” He asked.

T. Čapulis said that he had no such indisputable facts.

“Residents have also filed complaints with the Ministry of Transport and Communications and the Highway Administration. In their response, the authorities made it clear that this was the responsibility of the Vilnius district municipality. The course of events shows that the actual decisions Regarding street management they had started in 2017, after receiving the address of the old man.

We have no direct evidence that on October 30 members of the government or the people who prepared the project had and may have known such indisputable evidence, “said T. Čapulis.

“It was not normal”

The meeting was attended by Vitalijus Andrejevas, Head of the Highway Administration. Its COEC member Virginijus Kanapinskas asked what is the usual practice of considering and preparing such draft resolutions.

“Until February 2019, the practice was very simple: the municipalities submitted requests to the Highway Administration. (…) In this way, according to the description in force at the time, the projects were collected and classified, presented to the Ministry of Transport and Communications, and the deliberations were held in the Government Office. They discussed how they contribute to the implementation of the Government program, “said V. Andrejev, head of the Highway Administration.

“It just caught our eye then. (…) After the change in the legal regulation, therefore, I cannot comment on the actions taken by the Ministry of Transport and Communications, as well as on the basis of benefits, as it seemed, “said the head of the Highway Administration at the COEC meeting.

He stated that in mid-2019, representatives of the Government Legal Group had proposed specifying specific objects in the draft resolutions.

Two testimonies

T. Čapulis provided COEC members with a legal assessment.

“The Commission received written explanations from the former Minister of Transport, who also made some comments in public. The former minister has explained to the Commission that talks have been held on the subject of this street with the prime minister. He simply does not specify the time exact, it does not detail in what context. Perhaps more than the public information, it can be concluded that the context was in terms of general repair of gravel roads, that the Prime Minister did not press, “said a representative of the COEC on the statements of Rokas Masiulis.

“It is received from a person whose identity is requested not to be revealed, it also refers to people who have spoken in the ministry on the subject. The speech was about 2017-2018, there are such written testimonies. The Commission verified the data and certificates received during the investigation, ”said a COEC representative.

He said that these testimonies had not been confirmed.

“These data were categorically denied, it was stated that there were no such conversations in the context of the object in question,” he explained.

T. Čapulis assured once again that there are no arguments showing that S. Skvernelis knew which object is in question.

“The totality of the evidence does not allow an unequivocal statement to be made that on October 30, 2019, while participating in the adoption of the Government Resolution, the Prime Minister knew that the decision will allocate money to a specific object,” said a representative. of COEC.

“Conflicts of interest cannot be explained by assumptions or hypotheses,” he said.

“There is not enough factual data to confirm that there was a conflict of interest situation,” the assessment was provided by a COEC representative.

Areta Miškinienė transmitted to the COEC members the position of the entire Investigation Department, to end the investigation into the behavior of S. Skvernelis.

All four COEC members agreed with the evaluation of the Research Division.

I expected a decision based on legal arguments

On Thursday, Prime Minister S. Skvernelis hoped that COEC members would make decisions based on the law rather than opinions floating in public spaces.

“I have given all the answers in writing. I no longer see the point. I hope that the solution, as it should be, is based on legal arguments,” he said, adding that he would not attend the meeting himself.

“It all happened during that period, but in giving my opinion before the reading … I would not like to express preliminary opinions, several opinions have already been expressed today.” I believe that COEC members will be guided only by law and not by other factors. Some of the commission members are clearly committed, but this is decided by the majority of the commission members, “he said.

The Prime Minister stresses that without confusing public and private interests due to the circumstances of the paving of the residential street.

“In terms of public space, it seems that the road only leads to my house and there are six lanes and three layers. It’s a caricature here, but if it’s serious, then I really don’t have the opportunity, the time, the desire to brainstorm, allocate common funds, what municipality, what object to build, build a school, or renovate something. Apparently it would be difficult for me, “he said.

The study was launched last year.

ELTA recalls that the COEC launched an investigation into the asphalting circumstances of the street where Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis lives in late 2019.

Head of state Gitanas Nausėda has hinted that the COEC’s conclusions will determine his attitude towards the head of government. For his part, the prime minister told government journalists on Wednesday that he did not confuse public and private interests and that he did not plan to attend the COEC meeting on Thursday.

The investigation was initiated on the basis of information published by the 15min.lt portal and after compiling primary data from the Government Chancellery, the Ministry of Transport and Communications and the Vilnius District Municipality.

A study carried out by 15min.lt announces that 300 thousand LTL would be allocated to pave the roads of the Vilnius district. Almost the entire € 1 million went to repair Upės Street in the town of Smigliai, where Prime Minister S. Skvernelis lives. 15 minutes. The investigation also announced that the Prime Minister had chaired the meeting during which funds were distributed for the asphalting of roads in the Vilnius district.

Doubts have been raised as to whether public policy actions do not conflict with the requirements of the Law on the reconciliation of public and private interests in the civil service.