G.Skaistė after the meeting with the president: my suitability to work as a minister should be assessed by the society as well

“The president pointed out that public trust is important for all ministers, especially the Minister of Finance, because he has many levers and decisions in his hands, which determine both public welfare and business viability,” the representative of the President Antanas Bubnelis after the meeting. .

According to him, she herself will have to answer public questions about G.Skaistė’s reputation.

For her part, the candidate says that the public appreciates all the information about her, including the incident that occurred seven years ago, in which the then member of the Kaunas City Council was involved.

“I am very sorry for that mistake, I think I really had the opportunity to think about it,” said G. Skistė.

He said he thought he would never make a similar mistake again, but that his reputation and suitability to lead the ministry, according to G. Skistė, should be evaluated by the public.

“Probably for the public to evaluate if that rehabilitation period is sufficient, or if I have the right to occupy that position, after evaluating my mistake and not repeating it again,” he considered.

G.Skaistė got drunk driving the officers in the summer of 2013; then a 31-year-old Kaunas politician was assigned a drunkenness of 0.8 per thousand. She was deprived of her driving license for some time.

In an interview with BNS last month, Prime Minister-designate Ingrida Šimonytė stated that G.Skaistė should not be sentenced for life for driving.

The future head of government stressed that later she did not find any situation that called into question her suitability for the position of Minister of Finance.

The general government deficit will be around 6.5 percent next year. GDP

The general government deficit in 2021 will be higher than that projected by the current government and should reach around 6.5 percent. gross domestic product (GDP), my candidate for finance minister Gintarė Skaistė.

“Everything related to quarantine, with COVID-19, everything is provided with borrowed funds and the budget does not allocate funds at all. The planned 5 percent. Budget deficit and obviously it will not be achieved,” G.Skaistė told journalists.

“In my personal opinion, the budget deficit is very likely to be around 6.5 percent next year,” he added.

As he highlighted, the costs associated with a coronavirus pandemic include, for example, the purchase of vaccines, compensation for downtime, guarantees, sickness benefits.

“All this will cost about 880 million. in the next years. It is obvious that the hole in the budget is quite large, ”said the candidate.

According to G.Skaistė, the draft budget also lacks other legal expenses, such as 67 million. 10 million euros for the additional indexation of pensions proposed by the president, new calculation of early retirement pensions and 28 million euros for inclusive education. euros.

Responding to the government’s conservative criticism of unbudgeted funding for the vaccine, outgoing Finance Minister Vilius Šapoka said that this model was chosen considering that the exact costs are not yet known and that budget review procedures are complicated. .

According to him, the chosen model does not present any risk that the state will not be able to buy vaccines.

The draft budget for 2021 currently under consideration foresees that the budget deficit will reach 5% next year, but the National Audit Office foresees a 5.7% higher for 2021. deficit.

Vitas Vasiliauskas, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bank of Lithuania, has also spoken of the risk that the deficit will exceed 5% next year.