Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda says he still trusts Prime Minister Gintautas Palucas, but urges the Vilnius authorities to demand interest from the PM for late damages payments in the so-called “rat case”.
“I still have reason to trust the prime minister, but I am waiting, as I have said many times, for the conclusions of the relevant services,” Nausėda told reporters on Monday. “And, above all, I am waiting for the prime minister’s answers to all the questions, because it is becoming increasingly unacceptable to hear about some new circumstances.”
“I have told him that the answers to the questions should not give rise to another 50 questions. At the moment, I see that those additional questions are being asked,” he added.
The prime minister has been a subject of a series of embarrassing investigative reports focusing on his past business dealings. The latest report, published on Sunday, revealed he failed to fully pay damages to Vilnius Municipality after a court found him guilty of public procurement irregularities.
In 2012, the Supreme Court of Lithuania ruled that Paluckas had abused his office because, as director of administration at Vilnius Municipality, he patronised a municipal company that provided rodent extermination services. At the time, Paluckas was given a suspended two-year prison sentence and ordered to pay around 16,500 euros in damages.
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Paluckas only completed the payment of damages this month, Laisvės TV and the Siena investigative journalism centre reported on Sunday.
The damages were to be paid within a year of the court ruling but Valdas Klimantavicius, then director of the municipal administration, granted Paluckas’ request to postpone the deadline until the end of 2015. Paluckas proposed to pay around 4,340 euros immediately and the rest in monthly instalments of around 870 euros.
However, Paluckas did not follow through on the payment plan, according to the investigative report. He paid 11,580 euros in May 2014 but only transferred the remaining sum, some 5,000 euros, this month, reportedly after receiving enquiries about it from Siena and Laisvės TV.
Paluckas’ adviser Justinas Argustas has commented the failure to finish paying the damages was a “human error” that the prime minister corrected.
President Nausėda said on Monday that Paluckas should also pay late payment penalties.
“Vilnius Municipality should demand interest for not paying the required amount on time, because money has a price, money has interest and it must be paid,” he said, adding that the situation “seems strange” to him.
“Usually the system works in such a way that people who have not paid a small bill receive threatening letters from bailiffs, which, when you read them, make you fear what might happen. And here, for years, there has been a rather large sum of money hanging around,” Nausėda said. “Debt is something that should probably always be remembered.”
On the other hand, the president stressed that the Vilnius authorities’ control system “has also proved to be flawed”.
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