The international initiative, the Open Government Partnership report said that regulations on lobbying in Lithuania should be changed, with an expansion of the definition of a lobbyist to make the register effective and more information should be made available about the real ownerships structures of businesses, ensuring centralised access to assets‘ and interests‘ declarations.
According to the NGOs, the current government‘s action plan to reduce corruption was not effective, and it believed that there will be few concrete outcomes from it.
It recommended that Lithuania “create legal and technical guidelines for enhancing transparency in the beneficial ownership of companies registered or operating in Lithuania” and ensure access to all official interest and asset disclosure declarations through a centralised online channel and in accordance with open data standards.
The initiative also said that access to political party financial data through a centralised online channel should made available in a more timely manner.
“The Lithuanian action plan covered a variety of topics, ranging from improving public participation to increasing accountability in the health sector. Implementation was negatively affected by a lack of measurable activities and targets. Moving forward, the content of the [government’s] action plan would benefit from more specificity and meaningful collaboration with civil society,” said researcher Karolis Granickas.
The Open Government Partnership’s aim is to help states to achieve greater transparency and increase citizen participation.
LRT
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