PM sees ‘ethical and moral’ breaches in environment minister’s actions

“I do not have the final conclusions yet, but I have met Mr. Trečiokas today. I have preliminary conclusions presented by our lawyers, they will still be revised somewhat, but should be finished by the end of the day. The report says that there have been no legal violations detected, so our lawyers agree with the prosecutor’s conclusion,” Butkevičius told reporters on Wednesday.

Minister Trečiokas, of the Order and Justice party, has been named in an investigation about suspected corruption in passing a government resolution that benefited the mayor of Druskininkai. Investigators later dropped the case, but released phone conversation transcript indicating that Trečiokas could have acted on the Druksininkai mayor’s behalf and pushed the resolution through.

President Dalia Grybauskaitė then indicated that she would like to see the environment minister stepping down, while Butkevičius insisted he would first consult with lawyers about whether there was something untoward in Trečiokas’ actions.

Butkevičius said on Wednesday that he discussed “moral and ethical” aspects of Minister Trečiokas’ behaviour.

“I can state that, in my view, there have been some ethical and moral breaches,” Butkevičius said. “It was said clearly that the public opinion is currently hostile towards him and this hostility affects the government as a whole.”

He added that he would receive the final report from his lawyers on Wednesday evening. He said he could not say whether Minister Trečiokas’ letter of resignation would be on his desk by the end of the day.