"I must take up the responsibility to ensure that such debates no longer take place among the public and even on the international level. I believe that a decision will be made as soon as tomorrow. In one or another form, the result will be that another economy minister will be sought," he told reporters.
Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė said earlier in the day that the prime minister should look for a replacement for Vėsaitė.
When asked about the criteria to be used in selecting candidates, Butkevičius said that the focus would be on whether a person is competent for the job.
"We have many competent people and we will select a person who has the competence. There will be no political decisions based on other selection criteria," he said, having decided not to wait for the Chief Official Ethics Commission's conclusion regarding Vėsaitė.
"I thought that there would be tolerance between different institutions, some conversation and understanding about somebody making a mistake. We are people and we do make mistakes. Since this has not happened, I must assume the responsibility," he said.
Vėsaitė got into trouble last week, when she and her two advisers flew to a business forum in Kazakhstan on an eight-seat business-class plane chartered by Arvi, a Lithuanian company. The round-trip flight of the three officials is claimed to have cost 8,100 litas (EUR 2,345), or 2,700 litas per person, while civil aviation specialists say that such a business-class charter flight to and from Astana may cost about 100,000 litas, or about 13,000 litas per passenger.
The Chief Official Ethics Commission has been asked to look into the potential conflict of interests. The parliamentary opposition is initiating an interpellation against the Social Democratic minister.
