Ruling party leader registers resolution on new parliamentary probe

Ramūnas Karbauskis proposes to investigate the period between 2008 and 2016, with May 2019 to be set as a deadline for completing the probe.

The initiative was backed by 58 LVŽS lawmakers, as well as some members of the Order and Justice political group in the Seimas and some lawmakers of the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania–Christian Families Alliance (LLRA-KŠS).

Artūras Skardžius was the only member of the LVŽS’s coalition partner Lithuanian Social Democratic Labor Party (LSDDP) to put his signature on the draft resolution.

The document, which does not mention any people or legal entities, calls for setting up a special parliamentary commission to investigate possible unlawful influence by persons and groups of persons on the country’s political processes, elections, the formation of parliamentary coalitions, the work of parliamentary groups and individual politicians, and activities by and funding of political parties and public movements.

The commission would investigate possible unlawful influence on the legislative process, and the appointment of and activities by the heads of public authorities and civil servants and top executives of state-owned companies.

The commission would be tasked with looking into how law-enforcement and intelligence bodies provided information available to them to the competent authorities and what steps were taken based on that information.

The draft resolution states that the new investigation would follow a recently completed probe by the parliament’s Committee on National Security and Defense (NSGK) into unlawful influence by business groups and other interest groups on politicians or political processes.

Karbauskis told the Žinių Radijas radio station on Wednesday that the proposed new investigation would be a follow-up to the NSGK probe, but it would focus on politicians, rather than on business people.

Lithuanian Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis has said that he does not approve of a new investigation.

NSGK chairman Vytautas Bakas and Justas Džiugelis, anther member of the LVŽS group in the Seimas, have also criticized Karbauskis’ move, saying that the parliament should focus on adopting decisions that are important today, rather than looking into the past.

In its findings approved by the Seimas in early June, the NSGK says that Russia‘s energy giant Rosatom and MG Baltic, one of Lithuania’s largest business groups, used non-transparent means to exert influence on political processes, thus posing a threat to national security.