Lithuania’s Defence Minister Dovilė Šakalienė received funds during last year’s parliamentary elections from representatives of defence companies that are now competing in public tenders, the Delfi news website reported on Tuesday.
According to Delfi, one of the shareholders of the defense company Ostara Lab, Darius Antanaitis, made a €5,000 contribution to Šakalienė before the elections. The firm is now one of 12 companies bidding for contracts to produce mines, Antanaitis confirmed to the news website.
Šakalienė also received a €4,000 donation from Aivaras Kašuba, the CEO of the company Lithuanian Defense Services (LDS). According to LRT RADIO, the firm is in negotiations to participate in the assembly of the German Leopard tanks that Lithuania is purchasing as part of the country’s largest-ever arms contract.
Kašuba told Delfi he supported Šakalienė as a private individual, while the Defence Minister did not provide specific information surrounding the negotiations.
The ministry said Šakalienė did not directly participate in any processes involving private companies, as they were overseen by the Defense Resources Agency in cooperation with representatives of the Lithuanian Armed Forces and the deputy minister responsible for the field.
According to the ministry, Šakalienė also had no personal relations or meetings with any of the individuals mentioned by Delfi. All campaign donors are publicly declared in accordance with the Electoral Code, it added.
Šakalienė said she made no decisions favourable to the mentioned companies during her term in office.
“If proposals were presented to the ministry to purchase defense industry products or services from these companies, I would recuse myself from the decisions and transfer them to the prime minister,” she wrote on her Facebook page. “The head of the ministry’s Corruption Prevention Department has been instructed to monitor the situation and take necessary measures.”
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