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The meeting of the Seimas Anti-Corruption Commission was attended not only by its members, but also by the prosecutor, the heads of the Financial Crimes Investigation Service, the Public Procurement Service, the Central Election Commission and the chairman of the Vilnius Anti-Commission City Council of Corruption.
The main and sole theme of the meeting was “On possible manifestations of corruption in the Vilnius city municipality during public procurement”. This issue is directly related to the mayor’s new wife and the company she works for.
In addition, mention was made of his wife’s cousin Benediktas Gylys, whose fund name received support from the municipality and implemented the Portalas project near the Railway Station, which significantly contributed to making Vilnius famous in the world.
About the competitions won by Do Architects 15 minutes he wrote immediately after the mayor’s marriage announcement. A little later, information about the support for the Portalas project and doubts about the idea and the Tolminkiemis Gymnasium design contest appeared, since the first was discontinued and the second was already won by Do Architects himself.
Promise not to be in court
“It just came to our knowledge then. Maybe everything is fine there, you have to make it clear to the public that everything is good, public, accessible, everything transparent.
It is a pity that this was not done by our control authorities, in my personal opinion, it should have been done by the Public Procurement Office, which evaluates public procurement. Similarly, we have control authorities, FNTT, others.
Everyone has an interest: both the mayor of Vilnius and the employees of the Vilnius municipality, the public has a legitimate interest in knowing and the public and themselves must receive a response, ”said Algirdas Stončaitis, chairman of the commission.
Photo by Lukas Balandis / 15min / Algirdas Stončaitis
According to him, both the mayor and representatives of the administration were invited to the meeting, but the director of the administration, Lina Koriznienė, replied that they would not participate. It is alleged that the administration itself carried out an investigation into the participation of Do Architects in the municipal tenders and did not receive any infraction. Therefore, the Seimas Anti-Corruption Commission can use those conclusions.
Vilnius Mayor Remigijus Šimašius also informed the commission in writing that he would not be able to participate “due to an intensive schedule planned in advance.”
Everyone has an interest – both the mayor of Vilnius and the employees of the Vilnius municipality, the public interest of the public to know.
The council commission also investigates
Vydūnas Sadauskas, chairman of the Vilnius City Council Anti-Corruption Commission, who participated in the meeting, said that the commission headed by him has also launched an investigation.
“We have no conclusions. The object of our investigation is all the public acquisitions that are in the municipality of the city of Vilnius and are related to the aforementioned mayor’s wife’s company, and their possible transparency. There are more than 700 thousand here EUR, including the design of the Tolminkiemis gym.
Because, according to our data, there was a main winner in this tender, UAB Projektai ir co, who would have done the work for a much smaller amount than if they announced another tender and selected another winner. Therefore, the commission will investigate why the first tender was canceled and who initiated the completion of the works and the announcement of a new tender at a different price.
Photo by Sigismund Gedvila / 15min / Vydūnas Sadauskas
The second issue refers to the mayoral election campaign. The complaint says that the electoral campaign was financed through the wife’s cousin, and then her public institution was supported in the execution of the projects, ”said V. Saduskas about the investigation of the Anticorruption Commission of the municipal council.
According to V. Sadauskas, this commission also intends to delve into the nuances of another tender, as Do Architects is said to have participated in a joint tender of the municipality of Vilnius and Lietuvos Geležinkeliai for the design of the territory of the latter company. The question is to what extent the representatives of the municipality could have influenced this tender.
VPN did not see the need to investigate
Darius Vedrickas, Head of the Public Procurement Office (VPN), stated that VPT evaluated the contracts in which Do Architects participated as a supplier or subcontractor, there were five of those contracts.
He immediately pointed out that four of the five contracts were awarded after a low-value public procurement, that is, the value of the contract without VAT did not exceed 10,000. “said the head of the VPN.
Valdas Kopūstas / 15min photo / Burial ceremony of the symbolic capsule of the Tolminkiemis gymnasium
The values of these contracts are different: they amounted to 1,112,000. euros with VAT. According to D.Vedrick, low-value purchases are distinguished by the fact that the municipality can interview several suppliers and choose the most suitable one. Or to interview only one, then there can be no violations if the provider is alone and is selected after the interview.
Regarding the design of the Tolminkiemis Gymnasium, the head of the VPT stated that an open project contest was held, whose proposals were evaluated not only by price – urban solutions, original and comprehensive architectural idea, innovation, price were only 10%. general evaluation.
“A total of 15 suppliers participated in the tender, the service has not received any violations or discrepancies. Currently, the Risk Management Division of VPN is conducting an evaluation, then we will decide if we select this acquisition for a detailed evaluation or not, ”said the VPN manager.
D.Vedrickas claimed that according to the criteria established in 2019, the purchase by the Tolminkiemis gym did not fall among those who caused suspicion.
He pointed to another tender in which Do Architects participated as a subcontractor, with the company accounting for 20%. the entire project proposal. This is a competition for the project of a pedestrian bridge over the Neris near the Vingis Park.
He defended the gym project
Seimas member Vytautas Mitalas, former deputy mayor of Vilnius and partner of R.Šimašius, corrected his colleagues who said that the contest for the Tolminkiemis Gymnasium was not an idea, but a contest of ideas and design. This is said to determine the price, which reaches more than 700 thousand. euros. And this has been a tremendously successful competition, since until then there had not been so much interest in designing an educational institution.
Lukas Rekevičius, president of the Chamber of Architects, also stated that the architects had no complaints about the artistic idea of the Tolminkiemis gym project and that the price is the same as the price paid by the company for such projects.
And the project “Portal”, which was implemented by the foundation of the current cousin of R.Šimašius’s wife, Benediktas Gylis, is a work of art, therefore the benefits are more for the city than for the foundation. In addition, its value is much higher if 44 thousand are given. municipal support, for which it was largely financed by the fund itself.
FNTT, STT does not conduct investigations
Antonis Mikulskis, head of the FNTT, stated that according to media articles, the service had not initiated a pre-trial investigation, as other institutions had already made decisions in this regard.
After this speech, the deputy of Seimas Mindaugas Lingė raised the question of whether this session was held in order to train the institutions and what investigations to initiate, since it seems that said representatives have not initiated investigations or are still in the process of details not are possible.
A.Stončaitis replied that there could be no lessons, but that it was impossible not to react to the “year of the year”, because, according to him, information on suspicious purchases has been provided since May.
Rūta Kaziliūnaitė, deputy director of STT, also announced that the investigation had not started. It simply emphasized that the decision not to open a pre-trial investigation was based on criminal responsibility.
Seimas member, Jurgis Razma, for his part, stated that none of the people who participated in the commission meeting had as much knowledge of architecture as to evaluate the architectural idea of the future gymnasium. And the biggest punishment for a politician is the negative public background, which the mayor of Vilnius received quite a bit.
The meeting ended with a statement from the president that the Anti-Corruption Commission will exercise parliamentary control and await information from the VPN and the Central Electoral Commission, which has also launched an investigation into the financial support of the mayor’s wife’s cousin to R. Šimašius. election campaign.
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