Two out of three (12 out of 17 in total) parties running in the elections pledge to publish meetings with interest groups, as per the survey on anti-corruption commitments by political parties conducted by Transparency International Lithuania. Almost all parties agree that it is important to introduce new public procurement procedures based on open data, to ensure effective monitoring of lobbying activities and to open the beneficial ownership register.
15 out of 17 parties responded to the questionnaire submitted by TI Lithuania between September 28 and October 2, 2020. The Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania – Christian Families Alliance and Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union did not provide answers to the survey.
7 parties pledge to publish all of the legal proposals they receive, 4 parties commit to publish detailed reports on their political campaign spending on social media. 4 parties pledge to publish everything about their activities.
According to the survey, four-fifths (12 out of 15) of the parties deem it important to open the lists of individuals and institutions that receive long and short-term permits to enter the Seimas and to ensure better monitoring of cooling-off periods for politicians.
When asked about their most important anti-corruption goals, one of three parties indicate they would strive for greater transparency and efficiency of public procurement (5 out of 15), 4 parties want stricter penalties for corruption offenses, 2 parties want accountability of civil servants and 2 stress the need for the involvement of citizens in decision-making, public anti-corruption education and opening up of data.
Most parties (11 out of 15) identified good examples of anti-corruption and transparency in recent years. They cited 23 examples, including the decrease of corruption levels in the society, the adoption and improvement of anti-corruption laws such as the Law on the Protection of Whistleblowers, the Law on Lobbying, the Law on Prevention of Corruption and the Law on Confiscation of Civil Property.
“I am glad that most candidates are determined to start with themselves and strive for greater transparency in their daily activities. In four years, I would very much like for us to be the EU leaders in open data and to have even more transparency in Lithuanian politics”, says Sergejus Muravjovas, CEO of Transparency International Lithuania.
A short summary of the findings can be found here (in Lithuanian).
You can see the questionnaire for the parties here (in Lithuanian). You can find the answers provided by the parties here, and the summaries of the results of each party here (language not corrected, in Lithuanian).
More information: Sergejus Muravjovas, sergejus@transparency.lt
Funded by the European Union’s Internal Security Fund-Police
*Lithuanian Farmers and Green Union provided their answers after the deadline (7 October, 2020). Their response is available in the provided summaries of the answers.