The commission also rebuked President Dalia Grybauskaitė and her advisers for giving specific instructions to institutions that are not under their subordination.
The commission approved its conclusions on Friday, with eight out of its 17 members voting in support and one against.
In light of the conclusions, Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius is asked to evaluate the suitability of the interior minister to carry on in his post. The commission said the minister, delegated by the Liberal and Center Union, had violated the Constitution by failing to provide any argumentation or reasons to validate the revocation of accesses to classified information for Gailius and Giržadas. The parliamentary panel was also unconvinced by the minister's arguments for rushing to dismiss the two officers.
"Considering the argumentation above, the commission believes that former FCIS chiefs should be reinstated until completion of an investigation that has been opened by prosecutors into possibly unlawful leak of information," reads the conclusions.
The panel also maintains that Palaitis could have dismissed Gailius and Giržadas for "personal or party reasons that are not related with the indicated motives of dismissal." Furthermore, the minister's actions caused an extensive negative reaction in the society and caused moral damage to the state and its law-enforcement institutions, therefore, the prime minister should look into Palaitis' suitability for the post.
The deputy prosecutor general, Raulušaitis, is accused of failing to perform his duties, which facilitated leak of information about planned state actions againts Snoras bank. Furthermore, he did not remove himself from the case and did not declare that his wife's uncle Algimantas Budrys held a high position in the Lietuvos Rytas daily. Budrys is deputy chief editor and one of the shareholders in the company.
The parliamentary commission ruled that these actions violated Raulušaitis' reputation as an officer, saying that prosecutor general should propose for the president to remove his deputy.
In response, Raulušaitis says he does not intend to step down following the adverse conclusions of the parliamentary Anti-Corruption Commission.
Nevertheless, he noted he would leave the position after hearing calls to resign from the state officials who appointed him.
"I do not intend to resign, I do not feel having done something that would keep me from continuing in my service. However, if the officials who appointed or nominated me to the post state mistrust (…), I will step down without delay," Raulušaitis told journalists at the Prosecutor General's Office on Friday.
The Anti-Corruption Commission also decided to ask the president and the parliamentary National Security and Defense Committee to make “major improvements in the work of the State Security Department." According to the conclusions, there are serious reasons to think that the department lacked sufficient legal reasons in its investigation of the potential leak of information.
Kubilius was recommended to "refrain from such type of actions," referring to his appeal to two ministers with a formulated task for a polygraph test.
The conclusion also suggests that specific instructions issued by the President and her representatives to institutions that are not directly under presidential subordination (interior minister, former chief of the Financial Crimes Investigation Service) violated relevant provisions of the Constitution.
The parliamentary commission drew the conclusion after an investigation into circumstances of the dismissal of the two top officers of the state agency. They were both sacked by Palaitis after receiving information about results of their polygraph tests.
The President said the minister's action was in line with the law, while the Prime Minister has stated that the dismissal was hasty.
Interpellation for the minister
Should Interior Minister Raimundas Palaitis of Liberal and Center Union not be dismissed, an interpellation will be organized at the Lithuanian parliament, members of the Anti-Corruption Commission said.
"If there is no agreement with the coalition partners, there will definitely be an interpellation. I promise to vote for it," Aurelija Stancikienė, member of the ruling Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats (conservatives), told a news conference on Friday.
Leader of the party's parliamentary group, Jurgis Razma, said the commission's call for dismissal of the interior minister "brought much complexity into relations with the coalition partners, the Liberal and Center Union."
"I understand we'll have a lot of explaining to do," he said, expressing hope for a successful outcome of the conversations.
The commission's conclusions are a recommendation.
The ruling Coalition for Changes includes the conservatives, Liberal and Center Union and Liberal Movement.
