More than €1 million in European Union funds intended to support Ukrainian refugees in Lithuania was mistakenly distributed to citizens of other countries, including Russia and Belarus, prompting a government audit and a leadership change at the agency overseeing the project.
The Ministry of Social Security and Labour has launched an internal investigation after it was revealed that EU support earmarked for Ukrainians also reached nationals of 43 other countries, such as Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan – all of whom held residency permits in Lithuania.
The European Social Fund Agency (ESFA), which administered the project, confirmed the departure of its director Lina Nevinskienė on May 13. Audronė Ališauskienė has been appointed acting director. However, the agency maintains that, under the rules in place at the time, support could be legally extended to other socially vulnerable groups, not just Ukrainians.
Between 2022 and 2023, the EU allocated nearly €17 million for the project “Support for War Refugees from Ukraine”. The aid included food, hygiene items, medications, legal services, Lithuanian language classes, and subsidised employment.
But the State Audit Office found that 813 of the aid recipients were not Ukrainian citizens and were therefore ineligible for the EU-funded support. Among the recipients were citizens of Russia and Belarus – a discovery that reportedly caused outrage within Lithuanian government circles.
“This should not have happened,” said Vice Minister of Social Security and Labour Rita Grigalienė in an interview with LRT RADIO. “We are conducting an internal audit to determine how this occurred.”
According to Rasa Virganavičienė, head of the EU Investment Audit Department at the State Audit Office, “We determined that 813 individuals did not belong to the target group of Ukrainian war refugees. Among them were Russian nationals. Therefore, we concluded that these expenditures should not be financed by the European Commission.”
The Seimas Audit Committee was briefed on the findings last week. The Office of the Auditor General has requested the return of the misallocated funds.
ESFA disputes the number identified by the State Audit Office, claiming that only 484 individuals were improperly supported. The agency argues that the rules at the time allowed participation in certain activities – such as language courses and subsidised employment – by any socially vulnerable persons, regardless of nationality, as long as they had the legal right to reside in Lithuania.
Nonetheless, the ministry has confirmed that the project implementer, Lithuania’s Employment Service, will be required to return the funds within a specified timeframe.
“We inherited this situation from the previous political leadership,” Grigalienė said. “We are doing everything we can to ensure it does not happen again.”
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