In the minority hour – questions about the work of the bodies and managers subordinate to the Municipality

As indicated in the amendments to the Law on Local Self-Government, at least half a year at the end of one of the municipal council meetings, the minority hour of the municipal council is organized. During it, minority representatives could ask questions to the mayor, vice-mayor, director of administration, chairmen of committees and commissions. Vice-mayor V. Riaukienė and vice-mayor V. Butkus, who accompanied the Minister of Health A. Dulkis, who came to Gargždis at that time, who was interested in the health reform situation, could not participate in the opposition hour due to illness.
Minority Hour took place last Thursday – February 29. – after the meeting of the Klaipėda district municipal council. According to the leader of the opposition, Justas Ruškis, the Council’s opposition, which consists of representatives of the Liberal Movement and the Fatherland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats, hoped to receive short, clear answers to their short questions. Most of the questions were asked about the work of the institutions subordinate to the municipality of Klaipėda district and their managers.
Commotion due to “Minija” pro-gymnasium
One of the main topics of the opposition’s hour of discussion and the most questions was about the Gargždas “Minijos” pro-gymnasium due to possible accusations that it employs fictitious employees. We wrote about this earlier in Banga. Opposition leader, liberal Justas Ruškys asked Klaipėda District Mayor Broniaus Markauskas what the Municipality’s position is regarding the Gargždai “Minija” pro-gymnasium and what works are planned in the near future. Mayor B. Markauskas said that steps have been taken to start the official inspection, a working group has been formed. The conclusions of the working group will be awaited, after which a decision can be made.
According to the member of the Council, liberal Julius Pozingis, the Anti-corruption Commission was also commissioned to perform an economic and financial audit of the mentioned educational institution. The mayor explained that after the conclusions of the working group, a decision will be made regarding the audit of the secondary school. “I am waiting for the working group’s proposal and to see what areas should be checked first. When there are conclusions, when we can specifically say which documents and which areas should be checked, we will decide on this: whether to conduct a comprehensive audit, or in specific areas that raise the most doubts,” the mayor assured.
Council member, conservative Martynas Martišauskas also asked about the appeal to institutions investigating financial crimes. “There is such a rumor that this scandal is about the “unsavory” financial part, when are you going to turn to external authorities for the financial part of this scandal. I don’t blame, but the public interest is simply to know the situation in detail and clarify those rumours,” M. Martišauskas asked the mayor.
B. Markauskas explained that, when addressing such institutions, specific reasons and specific possible violations should be named. “As you say, there are rumors, so we cannot apply based on rumours. We’ll do our best to find out. The situation is certainly not clear-cut, it can be said even now. But you need to have a sufficiently serious basis to apply to the law enforcement authorities”, answered the mayor.

Do you need that many technical staff?
During the opposition hour, Council member M. Martišauskas touched on another topic related to education. According to him, the question arose, why are there so many “other” staff positions in the school? M. Martišauskas gave some examples that there are 38 employees in Gargždų “Minijos” pro-gymnasium, and 71.68 full-time teachers. From the documents submitted by the Education and Sports Department of the Municipality, M. Martišauskas also stated that there are 38 full-time employees, 20 pedagogues in the Kretingalė primary school, 46 employees, 24 full-time pedagogues in the Vėžaičiai primary school. There are 50 employees and 34 teachers in Veivirženiai Jurgis Šaulis Gymnasium. How are we going to control and know whether those positions are used and assigned correctly?” – asked the question of a member of the Council.
As B. Markauskas assured, the Council had the right and the opportunity to control how many posts are allocated to an educational institution. “Now the head of the institution will decide on the positions, but we approved the decree that there will not be an absolute opportunity for the head. The manager will have to coordinate with the head of the supervising department and with me about the positions. There will be no absolute right,” said the mayor.
The mayor’s answer was supplemented by Algirdas Petravičius, the head of the Education and Sports Department, who spoke during the opposition hour that none of the head of the institution had the opportunity to introduce new positions, because funding was allocated to the institutions for the years 2023 and 2024 according to the approved regulations for the positions. “Each institution is specific, we have to start assessing how many pupils they have, what age the pupils are, how many departments there are and so on. Starting with school buses, one school has 1 and another has 4. The area to be cleaned by the facilities is also what it is, the whole school needs to be cleaned. The number of cooks also depends on the number of students, and there are more cooks in the kindergarten because there are 4 meals a day,” explained the head of the department in more detail.
He offered to carry out an official inspection
As in the previous one, the question was raised in this minority hour about the competition for the position of director of the Jonas Lankutis public library, as it was planned to be announced in February. The liberal member of the council, Audronė Balnionienė, asked the mayor when the tender will be announced, as letters are still being received about dissatisfied library employees.
The mayor replied to the council member that they were trying to find out how many dissatisfied employees there are in the library branches, and it turns out that there are few of them. “The competition will definitely be announced, it’s not like we’re waiting for the opportunity to be appointed to the position. I want to make it possible for the current lep director Aurelia Butkute-Norkevičienei to participate as well. It seems to me that they are planning to announce the tender in May,” said B. Markauskas.
We will remind you that the Control Committee held in mid-January explained the situation regarding the received complaint about the event organized by J. Lankutis in the public library. The control committee suggested conducting an internal audit regarding the event held in the library. Loreta Urbutė, a member of the council and a member of the Liberal Movement faction, asked in the discussion about the library whether the director of the library is dealing with the situation of dissatisfied employees: “In my opinion, during the meeting of the control committee and how much I had to communicate with the employees who were subject to official inspections, the situation is out of control and it is still is being sharpened, so I would really suggest that you think about whether managerial skills will really help in the future?”
The mayor proposed negotiations on the creation of a working group for the competition for the position of library manager, in order to objectively evaluate the future manager. L. Urbutė also asked about the official inspection, but when she did not receive an answer, she asked the mayor again and offered to carry out an official inspection to dispel doubts about the event that took place in the library. The mayor informed the council member that there is no reason to start an investigation, because the suspicions in the library arose because of the library event that took place in December, and not, for example, because of the waste of funds. “Does that event require a service check?” If a waste of funds is suspected, yes. If we start official inspections every time with a large force, will the time and cost costs be adequate?” – asked the mayor rhetorically.

Doubts about employment
During the minority hour, the issue of Loreta Piaulokaitė-Motuzienė, a member of the Lithuanian Peasants and Greens Union party faction and a member of the Lithuanian Peasants and Greens Union party, was also touched upon and heard in the media. Council member M. Martišauskas asked whether corruption prevention control of institutions is really carried out, and whether other institutions have these procedures and follow them, because, as he quoted, “all municipal institutions and companies have established public and transparent admission to competitive positions <…> procedures and selected appropriate legal acts.”
The head of the legal and personnel department, Vaidotas Jasas, commented that the competitive list of duties for hiring managers and employees of cultural institutions has been approved by the Government’s resolution. “It is necessary to follow the government’s decision. The head of the institution is certainly not obliged to set up something else, where he should announce a competition in addition to the positions specified in the Government’s resolution”, explained V. Jasas. The positions to which the aforementioned politician was accepted in the center of ethnic culture of the Klaipėda district are not open to competition. In a conversation with the mayor, the head of the ethnic culture center assured that the recruitment took place in accordance with the valid statutes, so the mayor B. Markauskas feels calm and has no doubts about the head’s answer. “As the mayor, I am calm in this place, because I did not ask, I did not influence, I did not even talk to the head of the institution about hiring,” said the mayor.
Council member A. Balnionienė also asked the mayor about the 2 employees employed at the Gargždai hospital during the minority hour. According to the liberal, one employee is from the mayor’s current team, the other from the former one. “Now there are rumors that 2 more workers may appear at the hospital. Is this the development of the so-called labor exchange, or is the current head of the institution, who worked well in her previous workplace, so badly that she needs to drop a landing force from your team to improve or save the situation? Since, obviously, your team in the Municipality is emptying out, should we expect new competent faces to appear here again?”, asked A. Balnionienė.
The mayor said that he is not happy if someone leaves his team, but it is not related to conspiracy theories, but to people’s own decisions. According to him, former adviser Artūras Bogdanovas left the administration of Gargždai Hospital seeking new challenges. And Aurelija Jansonienė has not been working in the Municipality for almost a year now, her decision is personal. “I can’t substantiate any rumours… Maybe I’m too strict with my team?” the mayor thought rhetorically and added that there are no decisions or invitations regarding the new advisors yet.
During the opposition hour, questions were also raised regarding the bankruptcy of the basketball team of the Public Enterprise “Gargždų sportas”, the recovery of municipal funds paid to the sports club, the efficiency of the multi-purpose center, the participation of the elder of the Vēžaičiai ward in the rally during non-holidays.
Gabriele ČIUNKAITĖ
“Banga” archive photo.