S. Čaplinskas does not agree with the dismissal arguments, undertakes to appeal the decision

The Ministry of Health (SAM) announced on Thursday that S. Čaplinskas was fired for breach of his duties, that is, for failing to deliver the State Information System for Communicable Diseases and their Pathogens (ULSVIS) to the National Center for Public Health (NVSC). ).

“Once we become familiar with the documents, we will definitely appeal Veryga’s decision as unfounded. It is obvious that the outgoing government is preparing jobs in this way,” S. Čaplinskas reported on Facebook Thursday evening.

SAM said Thursday that the management of the information system had been transferred to the NVSC in late July, but ULAC refused to cooperate and transfer it, thus violating legal requirements and not ensuring “the performance of other functions assigned by ministerial order.” Among other things, these actions are alleged to have prevented the NVSC from providing timely data to responsible authorities, complicated work to rapidly investigate communicable disease outbreaks and identify outbreaks, and jeopardized the most stringent movement restrictions for Lithuanians across the EU. .

S. Čaplinskas qualifies this information as false and emphasizes that decisions to take over the information system can be appealed to a court.

“I would like to remind you that all the statistics related to COVID-19 are registered in a new information system specially developed for this disease, which is managed by the NVSC. This is provided by the Minister of SAM on May 5, 2020. order, “says S. Čaplinskas.

It is clear that the outgoing government is thus preparing jobs.

Therefore, the assertions of the SAM report (…) are unfounded, false and lies. As I mentioned, they have all the data on COVID-19 because it is stored in another, that is, a new information system that has nothing to do with ULSVIS. I see that the problem with NVSC is not the lack of data, but the lack of modern analytical capabilities, ”says the fired director of ULAC.

According to him, the ULSVIS system, which has existed for more than a decade, collected and analyzed data on a total of 103 infectious diseases and their pathogens, with which ULAC physicians, epidemiologists and analysts worked.

“There are reasonable doubts that the Minister ordered ULAC to transfer said information system to another institution (NVSC) as a matter of urgency, precisely after ULAC received the approval of 420,000 euros of support from the EU for the modernization of this system” says S. Čaplinskas.

It states that ULAC has been successful in monitoring all communicable diseases, and that ULAC epidemiologists and analysts have “kept the public informed and made no secret of it.” The director of the institution also doubts the ability of the NVSC to deal quickly with the sensitive data on morbidity of the Lithuanian population accumulated over the decade.

“Realizing the possible negative consequences of such a hasty decision by Veryga and the additional burden on another institution, we appeal this decision to the court. As far as I know, this Veryga decision has also been appealed by the Deputy of the Seimas Antanas Matulas ”, writes the dismissed head of the institution.

It is a demonstration of power and a possible political settlement of opinion.

According to him, “the fabrication and institutional and personal mobbing of various accusations, the attempt to destroy the institution, the” sewing of the mouth, the persecution, the prohibitions “have been going on for several years.

“It just came to our attention then. Everyone knows that I was greatly belittled, constantly humiliated, mocked, lied to, threatened to face up. For example, I have written explanations of why I provided the public with information about the flu, why I shared information on my Facebook account and more. elements of mobbing ”, informed the long-term head of ULAC.

Medikas S.Čaplinskas has been running ULAC since 1989, when this institution was still called the Lithuanian AIDS Center. He ran for the Seimas elections with a list of opposition Social Democrats, but did not enter parliament. A.Veryga states that the dismissal of S. Čaplinskas is not related to him.