He noted that President Dalia Grybauskaitė's stance is that the minister most likely violated the law on Private and Public Interests in Public Service.
"I support the president's position, my position is that we should wait for a proposal or conclusions from the Chief Official Ethics Commission; however, we decided in the coalition council today to postpone the issue until Tuesday," the prime minister said.
Vėsaitė got into trouble and arose suspicions of conflicting interests when she flew to Kazakhstan on an airplane chartered by a private company.
"Such a practice is definitely non-tolerable. It's a direct link with the business and that definitely casts a big shadow on the entire cabinet," Grybauskaitė said last week.
Last Monday, Vėsaitė and her two advisers flew to a business forum in Kazakhstan on a charter eight-seat business-class airplane booked by Arvi company. The round-trip flight of the three officials cost 8,100 litas (EUR 2,345), i.e., 2,700 litas per person.
However, civil aviation specialists say the charter flight on a business-class airplane to and from Astana may cost about 100,000 litas, which means about 13,000 litas per passenger.
The potential conflict of interests has been taken to the Chief Official Ethics Commission. The parliamentary opposition is drafting interpellation against the minister.
