Following an assessment at the Lithuanian Embassy in London, inspectors from the Foreign Ministry found that Ambassador Eitvydas Bajarūnas abuses his authority and inappropriately communicates with his staff, the delfi.lt news website reported on Wednesday.
Delfi.lt reported in August that the Foreign Ministry had received complaints from employees about possible mobbing and abuse of office by Bajarūnas.
Following these allegations, an audit was launched, and the ministry’s inspectors visited the embassy in London on September 18-21. According to delfi.lt, they interviewed 13 embassy employees.
The audit concluded that Bajarūnas has been rude and disrespectful to his staff, many of whom have been threatened with dismissal or subjected to public insults, bullying, and humiliation. The atmosphere in the embassy was found to be tense, and three staff members have left in six months.
Moreover, the embassy employees revealed that Bajarūnas often stresses that the staff must respect not only him but also his spouse, filmmaker Giedrė Žičkytė, whom he called “the national treasure”.
Žičkytė was also found to be actively involved in the work and activities of the embassy, delegating tasks of a personal nature to staff members. Staff members pointed out the ambassador’s inability to separate his private and public interests, adding that he may be abusing his official position.
According to the inspectors, all this has a negative impact on the performance of the strategically important diplomatic mission. They recommended the Foreign Ministry to decide on the suitability of Bajarūnas to lead the Lithuanian Embassy in London.
The institutions responsible for foreign policy will hold consultations on whether Bajarūnas can remain in his position, according to Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis.
“Since the matter of the ambassador’s further work is not decided by a single minister but jointly by institutions, consultations will now take place on the best way to continue organising the work at the embassy,” Landsbergis told reporters on Wednesday.
It was reported earlier that investigations had been launched over the conduct of two Lithuanian diplomats. The second one is Lithuania’s Ambassador to NATO Deividas Matulionis who allegedly failed to comply with the mandate given by state institutions and may have weakened Lithuania’s negotiating position during the negotiations on the documents of the NATO summit in Vilnius.
In early September, President Gitanas Nausėda said he had trust in both diplomats.
In Lithuania, ambassadors are appointed and dismissed by the president on the recommendation of the government and with the approval of the parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Demanding ambassador
According to Bajarūnas, he has become an instrument in a political fight.
“I think you understand why I have remained silent so far – I am concerned about the interests of the state and its prestige, and the situation is damaging both the prestige of the state and the embassy,” he told a press conference in Vilnius on Wednesday.
“This is an inadequate situation. For the first time an ambassador is being used in a political fight,” he added.
In response to the mobbing allegations, Bajarūnas said that he was a demanding and active ambassador, working both weekdays and weekends, so not all employees might have liked such principles of work.
“In the UK, even on weekends, I need to meet Lithuanians [...]. It is natural that my activity and demanding nature goes beyond the standard limits,” the ambassador said.
“As a leader, I will draw conclusions about people’s grievances, and I have already drawn conclusions, and we will deal with the problem consistently if there is a problem,” he added.
Bajarūnas stressed that this is the first time in the 30 years of his diplomatic career that he has received such complaints, which he only found out about “from the media”.
Regarding the accusations that his wife was using the embassy’s transport and giving orders to the staff, Bajarūnas said that she is a person representing the country in an official capacity, with an official salary as the ambassador’s wife, and she is entitled to carry out certain functions.
“The state expects her to perform those functions. My wife has sometimes asked for transport or staff assistance to perform those functions. And this has been done within the scope of her capacity and there has been no abuse of power,” he said.
Bajarūnas served as Lithuania’s ambassador in Moscow until May 2022 when he was recalled from the post. He has been serving as the country’s ambassador in the UK since September 2022.
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