2012 04 18

Lithuanian Parliament Speaker calls for FCIS chief's resignation

Lithuania's Parliamentary Speaker Irena Degutienė said on Wednesday that the new director of the Financial Crimes Investigation Service, Kęstutis Jucevičius, should resign in the wake of unfavourable findings of ethics watchdogs.
Kęstutis Jucevičius
Kęstutis Jucevičius / Juliaus Kalinsko/15min.lt

"In this case, the new FCIS chief Jucevičius should step down from the post in a honorable manner without any scandals and political interpretations," Degutienė said in an interview to Žinių Radijas news radio on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Lithuania's Chief Official Ethics Commission ruled that the newly-appointed head of the Financial Crimes Investigation Service confused his public and private interests by signing a document on his own credibility.

Jurgis Razma, head of the political group of the ruling Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats (conservatives), then urged Jucevičius to resign. However, the FCIS chief said he would not step down and wait for a decision of Interior Minister Artūras Melianas who was only sworn in on Tuesday.

President Dalia Grybauskaitė's advisers cited her as saying that "assessments and decisions are up to the new interior minister."

Meanwhile, the parliamentary speaker said that everyone should be equal before the law, recalling that conclusions of ethics watchdogs had been the reason behind the resignation of top-ranking officials in the past.

"I cannot understand what we should be waiting for when we have very specific answers and a specific conclusion of the Chief Official Ethics Commission," she told the radio.

"There is no confidence in such FCIS chief," Degutienė stated.

The Chief Official Ethics Commission was approached by the parliamentary Anti-Corruption Commission amid doubts whether Jucevičius could sign the document intended to the Special Investigation service about his own credibility. The document was necessary for Jucevičius, then acting director of the Financial Crimes Investigation Service, to be appointed to the post on the permanent basis.

Jucevičius was appointed to head the Financial Crimes Investigation Service in the end of March after the then interior minister Raimunas Palaitis designated him to the post regardless of the call from Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius to postpone the procedure amid doubts about the official's irreproachable reputation.

Meanwhile, President Dalia Grybauskaitė said she did not have any factual negative information about Jucevičius.

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