Muravjovas notes that parties currently submit summarized spending reports to the Central Electoral Commission, for instance, spending on vehicles, accommodation and food, meetings and other events, and the reports do not specify final recipients of the money.
In his words, such regulations leave room for misuse of tax-payers' money, so parties should prepare more detailed financial reports.
"As of the beginning of this year, political parties will receive even more tax-payers' money from the state budget. However, their reports still do not provide full picture of the way the money is spent. Such information should be available to the society in a detailed and comprehensible form on the commission's website," Muravjovas said.
He said that another important problem was financing of political organizations through third parties, i.e., through individuals and organizations that are not formally affiliated with the political parties but contribute to their operations. In his words, at least a partial solution to the problem would be a rigid requirement for financial publicity of non-governmental organizations and a clear definition of such organizations.
Earlier on Tuesday, the parliament adopted an amendment to the Law on Public Procurement, which stipulates an exception for parties and allows purchasing goods and services without public procurement procedures. According to the change, acquisitions organized by political parties and participants of political campaigns are exempt from the provisions of the law which obliges any legal entity receiving more than 50 percent of its funding from the state budget to buy commodities and services through a public procurement scheme.
MPs said that the terms and conditions of public procurement were inconsistent with terms of political campaigns and, furthermore, the terms and conditions left room for abuse of suppliers that would jeopardize political campaigns.
The law was changed after budget grants became the main source of funding of political parties following a ban for businesses to sponsor political parties. Enforced on 1 January, the amendment prevents political parties from accepting donations from individuals and legal entities, while political campaigns are allowed to receive donations from private individuals only.
