4 out of 10 state-owned (SOE) and 1 out of 10 municipality-owned (MOE) enterprise CEOs were connected to political parties in 2019, states the report by Transparency International Lithuania. The entire analysis can be found at www.manovalstybe.info.
Overall, at least 3 out 10 SOE and MOE CEOs are affiliated with political parties, i.e. have participated in elections with a political party or coalition. In 2017, 4 out of 10 executives had such connections.
Most CEOs are linked to Social Democrats, Conservatives, Liberals, Farmers-Greens, and Labour.
In 2019, every third municipality-owned enterprise and every fifth state-owned enterprise saw changes in senior leadership. Since the 2019 municipal elections, 25 MOEs have already changed their CEOs. Out of these, 4 MOEs changed their leadership twice.
Most leadership changes in municipality-owned enterprises occurred between 2015 and 2019 – then 59 out 100 largest MOEs changed 107 executives. 55 CEOs were changed in 31 MOEs in a four-year period after the 2011 municipal elections; 40 executives changed in 38 MOEs in the same period after the 2007 elections.
In comparison to 2017, in 2019, 6 times fewer executives had been in office for longer than 20 years.
“Municipality-owned enterprises must become more transparent. They could start with publishing information on their leadership, board, and supervisory board members. Meanwhile, proper monitoring of conflicts of interest and whistleblower protection are weak points that need to be addressed by the majority of state- and municipality-owned enterprises. Incidentally, in terms of accessibility of data on SOEs, MOEs, and other enterprises, Lithuania’s position in the EU is weakening. That is why it would be great if the Center of Registers published the information on beneficial ownership.” – said Sergejus Muravojvas, CEO of Transparency International Lithuania.
This study uses data on SOEs and 100 largest MOEs, first collected in October 2017 and updated in December 2019. The data was obtained from the Central Electoral Commission of the Republic of Lithuania, municipalities and municipality-owned enterprises, state-owned enterprises, and the Governance Coordination Centre.
A short summary of the results can be found here. For more information please visit www.manovalstybe.info.
For further queries please contact: Sergejus Muravjovas, sergejus@transparency.lt.