Twice as many heads of municipalities, i.e., mayors, deputy mayors, and heads of municipal administration, published their work calendars during the second year of their term. The number of meetings with interest groups increased one-and-a-half times (in total – 2268, one year before– 1422).
The study conducted by Transparency International Lithuania is focused on a review of the official work calendars, personal websites and the website manosusitikimai.lt of mayors, deputies and heads of administration of all 60 of Lithuania’s municipalities.
Overall, four out of five (185 out of 215) heads of municipalities published their work calendars. For the first all mayors published their agendas.
Permanent agendas, allowing to see all the meetings declared since its publication, were disclosed by two out of five mayors and every fourth deputy mayor and head of municipal administration (39 out of 154). Every second municipal leader published temporary agendas which feature meetings only of the current day, week, or month.
Most meetings with interest groups were declared by the mayor of Vilkaviškis District Algirdas Neiberka (177 meetings), the head of administration of Vilkaviškis District Vitas Gavėnas (172 meetings) and the deputy mayor of Alytus Jurgita Šukevičienė (143 meetings).
Most meetings were held with business and business associations’ representatives (714 meetings), medical sector representatives (637 meetings), and education, sport, and science representatives (446 meetings).
The review looked at how 215 mayors, mayors’ deputies and heads of administration published their agendas and how many meetings were declared between 18th March, 2020 and 17th March, 2021 (only collected from the permanent agendas). A number of municipal leaders held office only temporarily.
A short summary of the findings can be found here (in Lithuanian). More detailed information about the report can be found here (in Lithuanian).
More information: Ingrida Kalinauskienė, ingrida@transparency.lt,
The project is financed by the EEA Grants 2014-2021 through the Active Citizens Fund.