Several politicians have been forced to explain themselves after the journalist Andrius Tapinas started investigating their parliamentary expenses.
Tapinas, who heads the online media channel Laisvės TV, has previously dug into expense reports of municipal council members and is now taking on members of parliament, some of whom are also government ministers.
The overall picture is much better than in the municipalities, Tapinas says, but there are some expenses borne by taxpayers that look if not in violation of any rules then at least ethically questionable.
“How does it look like when you are a minister, have a ministry car, but as a member of parliament you pay for the insurance of your private car [as official expenses]? When you buy a really, really expensive gaming laptop? When you are constantly changing phones, quite expensive ones?” asks Tapinas.
The minister he refers to is Dainius Kreivys who heads the Energy Ministry. He uses an official car, but with the funds allocated for parliamentary activities, he insured his personal car and claimed reimbursements for fuel. The minister is currently away and has commented on the situation on Facebook.
“I accept that becoming a minister has changed the nature of my parliamentary activities and that I have a ministry car. In order to avoid speculation in the public sphere, I have returned to the account of the Seimas [parliament] all the parliamentary activities funds for the period from the time I became a minister until today,” Kreivys wrote.
In total, he returned almost 18,500 euros.
Another politician whose expense reports raised doubts is Marius Matijošaitis, a member of the liberal Freedom Party. With the funds intended for parliamentary activities, he bought professional music equipment, three computers, a smartwatch, a video projector, and a 2,000-euro phone.
“This equipment was bought with the intention of streaming, podcasting, making reels, social media content – it’s the equipment used for that,” the member of parliament explained.
He said he regretted that his expense reports gave the “appearance of non-transparency” and asked the parliament’s ethics watchdog to review his purchases.
“A member of the Seimas can buy computer equipment, but the kind of equipment they pick is their responsibility. I think he [Matijošaitis] will be able to explain why he needed such a tool to work with voters,” said Aušrinė Norkienė, chairwoman of the Seimas Ethics and Procedures Commission.
“If the Ethics and Procedures Commission decides that [my actions] do not meet moral standards, I intend to return the money and I apologise for the appearance [of wrongdoing],” Matijošaitis said.
In the afternoon of the same day, February 13, he announced that, pending the Commission’s conclusion, he was suspending his membership of the Freedom Party and withdrawing from its list for the European Parliament elections.
Social Security Minister Monika Navickienė has also drawn attention to her expenses. She has a ministry car, but her expense reports are full of taxi bills.
“I try not to misuse the ministry car and only use it when there is ministerial business. I do not own a personal car, so I use ride-hailing services,” she said.
Moreover, the minister has been asked about purchasing graphic design services from Mindaugas Mikulėnas, who is the husband of her fellow conservative MP Radvilė Morkūnaitė-Mikulėnienė, vice-chair of the party.
While this may give the appearance of a conflict of interests, Minister Navickienė insists she picks service providers by the quality of their work and not party connections.
“We buy those services that are the most suitable and can best meet expectations,” she said.
Parliament members’ expenses must be supervised, says opposition MP Ieva Kačinskaitė-Urbonienė of the Labour Party. However, she has reservations about Tapinas’ campaign, arguing it can give wrong impressions.
“Is it necessary to have this or that piece of equipment, was it necessary to go to a certain constituency so many times, or was it not? [...] When these questions are raised, the real question is, are members of parliament free to decide how to organise their work?” she says.
Last spring, a scandal broke out after Tapinas’ Laisvė TV investigated the use of office expense funds by politicians in municipal councils. Law enforcement has opened investigations in 26 municipalities.
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