The Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) has called for further measures to prevent corruption in Lithuania in respect of persons entrusted with top executive functions, including the President of the Republic, ministers, chancellors and political advisers, as well as members of the Lithuanian Police and the State Border Guard Service.
In its evaluation report, GRECO finds that Lithuania has a comprehensive normative and institutional framework to tackle corruption, which will be further improved by the new Law on the Prevention of Corruption. However, implementation of the applicable rules, prevention of corruption and overall coordination still leave room for improvement (also see the Lithuanian version of the report).
GRECO considers that the current ethical rules applicable both to top political officials and to law enforcement staff are too general. They need to be complemented with practical guidance in respect of situations of conflicts of interest, gifts, third party contacts, etc. When taking up their duties, top political officials should be systematically briefed about integrity standards and the conduct expected of them.
As regards law enforcement authorities, GRECO assesses the law on the protection of whistleblowers positively but advocates for further training and awareness raising activities to enable it to take root. There are robust rules in place as regards recruitment, career and internal oversight in the Police and the State Border Guard Service.
The implementation of the recommendations addressed to Lithuania will be assessed by GRECO in 2023 through its compliance procedure.
Lithuania: Council of Europe anti-corruption body publishes report on measures in respect of top executive functions and law enforcement agencies