On July 30, Vilnius Regional Court accepted a petition for bankruptcy filed by the Ministries of Economy and Education against the research center and will hold a hearing on August 20, Gintautas Stalnionis, the court's spokesman, tells BNS.
In early July, the government gave a go-ahead for terminating the agreement with IBM and initiating bankruptcy proceedings.
Economy Minister Evaldas Gustas then said that the prosecutor's office had been asked to look into the agreement on the establishment of Lietuvos Tyrimų Centras (Lithuanian Research Center), which placed heavy obligations on Lithuania. The minister said that the center was insolvent, with debts of 18 million litas (EUR 5.2m).
Following the signing of the agreement between the Lithuanian government and IBM in autumn 2010, it was planned that the research center would be allocated more than 40 million litas annually, or 200 million litas over a period of five years, of which around 130 million litas was to be paid to IBM for patenting and advice.
It was planned at that time that the center and IBM would have equal rights to use scientific research results and that Lithuanian scientists would be able to work at IBM laboratories in Zurich and Haifa.
