Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas completed payments for damages stemming from the so-called “rat case” only this month, even though he was supposed to have done it by 2015, investigative journalism centre Siena and Laisvės TV reported Sunday.
The case dates back to 2012, when the Lithuanian Supreme Court ruled that Paluckas had abused his office while serving as director of the Vilnius municipal administration. The court found he had favoured a city-owned company providing rodent extermination services.
Paluckas was given a suspended two-year prison sentence and ordered to compensate the Vilnius city municipality 57,000 litas – approximately €16,500 at the time.
According to documents provided to Siena and Laisvės TV by the city of Vilnius, Paluckas was required to repay the damages within a year of the court’s ruling. However, after he submitted a request for an extension, then-administration director Valdas Klimantavičius postponed enforcement of the court’s decision until the end of 2015.
In his request, Paluckas proposed an initial payment of 15,000 litas (about €4,340), with the remainder to be paid in monthly instalments of 3,000 litas (about €867) until the end of 2015.
Klimantavičius approved the plan in July 2013, stating that the city would initiate debt recovery proceedings if Paluckas failed to comply. Despite missed payments, no such action was taken.
According to city records, Paluckas made a lump-sum payment of 40,000 litas (around €11,580) in May 2014. Most of that amount came from family savings, according to Paluckas’ advisor Justinas Argustas.
After that payment, Paluckas still owed approximately 17,000 litas (about €4,900), which he transferred to the city on July 8 of this year.
Investigative journalists noted the payment came nearly a week after Siena and Laisvės TV publicly submitted questions to the prime minister, including inquiries about the unpaid damages.
“This was a human error, which the prime minister promptly corrected,” Argustas told the journalists. He said Paluckas contacted the city to verify whether the payments had been completed and was informed that part of the obligation remained unpaid.
“If necessary, Paluckas is willing to pay additional amounts to cover any late penalties,” Argustas added.
However, the Vilnius municipality said it had not received any formal offer from the prime minister to cover interest or penalties. It also confirmed it would launch an internal investigation into both Paluckas’ delayed payments and the city’s inaction in pursuing the debt.
Sunday’s report by Siena and Laisvės TV is the latest one in a series dealing with Paluckas’ past dealings. Earlier revelations have triggered a protest and calls from the opposition to resing.
Lithuania’s Special Investigation Service (STT) and the Financial Crime Investigation Service (FNTT) have launched separate pretrial investigations related to Paluckas and associated companies.
FNTT is currently looking into a €200,000 loan issued six months ago by the state-owned National Development Bank ILTE to a company partially owned by the prime minister, Garnis. Paluckas was questioned as a witness in that investigation last week.
Meanwhile, the STT opened a probe following another journalistic report involving a decade-old company partially owned by Paluckas, Sagerta, and its involvement in questionable loans, real estate acquisitions, and ties to businessman Darijus Vilčinskas.
Paluckas has so far insisted the reports have not revealed any wrongdoing on his part.
President Gitanas Nausėda last week criticised the prime minister’s inconsistent statements regarding the investigations and urged him to “tell the truth” or risk finding it “very difficult to continue doing his job”.
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