Vainiutė, who has drawn criticism from President Dalia Grybauskaitė for failing to properly organize work at the ministry, plans to make decisions after meeting with Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis on Monday.
“Doubts were yesterday expressed to the Justice Ministry and me personally about the transparency of activities and the ability to deal with problems faced by subordinate bodies. I can assure you that we will do our best to ensure that the ongoing work and reforms both in the prison system and in other bodies under the ministry are continued,” she said in a statement on Thursday.
The minister promised to immediately launch an impartial probe into allegations that some members of the ministry’s staff are feeling pressure or are being hindered from performing their duties.
“Such actions cannot and will not be tolerated,” she said.
Rasa Kazėnienė, who works at the Justice Ministry, said at a news conference on Wednesday that Deputy Justice Minister Raimondas Bakšys had put pressure on her and her colleague to stop them from immediately turning to law-enforcement bodies over irregularities identified during an audit of the prison system.