Ethics chief pledges to resign tomorrow

“I and the parliamentary speaker discussed all issues yesterday. Our stances are the same. The parliamentary speaker had given me enough time to think. It was me who suggested tomorrow as the date. The resignation will come tomorrow,” Valentukevičius told BNS on Thursday.

Parliamentary Speaker Viktoras Pranckietis said on Thursday morning that the Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union (LFGU) and its ruling coalition partner, the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP), unanimously approve of his decision to sack official ethics chief.

The Seimas is likely to discuss Valentukevičius’ dismissal next week.

Pranckietis in January called on Valentukevičius to resign, saying that the chairman harmed the commission’s reputation when he made a unilateral decision that Greta Kildišienė, who was then a member of the Seimas, was not under the obligation to declare that she was driving a car leased by her mother from Agrokoncernas, a company owned by Ramūnas Karbauskis, the LFGU chairman.

The Chief Official Ethics Commission monitors the implementation of the Law on Coordination of Public and Private Interests in State Service and the Law on Lobbyism Activities, investigates reports, complaints and pleas on suspected conflicts of interests of persons employed in public service, monitors the information published in the media about conduct of politicians, etc.

Valentukevičiuė has come under criticism in the past over politicizing of the institution. In her annual state of the nation address last June, President Dalia Grybauskaitė said that cleansing the state of corruption would be faster if, for instance, “the Chief Official Ethics Commission served as a guardian of political morals, instead of being a stain bleacher.”