"We can confirm that the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant held some funds at Ūkio Bankas. The ministry is looking into whether the company did not breach the investment rules approved by its management board," Daiva Rimašauskaitė, an advisor to the energy minister, told BNS.
She did not say how much money the plant held at the bank.
TV channel TV3 reported on Tuesday that Lietuvos Energija (Lithuanian Energy) and the INPP held almost 20 million litas (EUR 5.8m) at Ūkio Bankas. Lietuvos Energija denied keeping any money at the bank.
"Incompetence"
Lithuanian Energy Minister Jaroslav Neverovič said that Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant's 15-million-litas (EUR 4.35m) deposit at the collapsed Ūkio Bankas is "an example of incompetence."
The plant held 89.9 million litas worth of deposits at Snoras, another local bank that collapsed in late 2011, more than any other state-owned company.
"This is an unacceptable situation. It is an example of incompetence and unprofessional (conduct). I have asked to give the name of the person, the so-called financial officer, or responsible people who made the decisions to invest in Ūkio Bankas, in spite of the painful Snoras experience," he told reporters.
Neverovič said that other energy sector companies kept no money in Ūkio Bankas.
"We confirm that we had a deposit of 15 million litas in Ūkio Bankas. It was not EU money. The funds were the company's own funds that would be used for transitional periods in case of discontinued funding or other unforeseen situations, for example, to pay salaries, maintain energy resources and other similar things," Ignalina plant's spokeswoman Natalija Survila told BNS.
