M. Sinkevičius himself did not come to the closed meeting.
The request to remove M. Sinkevičius from the post of LSA president was considered at his own request. The law enforcement has filed suspicions once morest him for abuse, forgery of documents and misappropriation of assets using funds intended for the activities of a council member.
The board approved LSA vice-president, Plungė district mayor Audrius Klišonis as the acting president of LSA.
“I accept the trust given to me by the board as a commitment to continue the main and most important work of LSA – to further increase the autonomy of municipalities and to strive for municipalities to have as many opportunities and tools as possible to solve various issues locally, taking into account the needs of their communities”, A. Klišonis is quoted in the report.
According to him, the association’s mission is to strengthen local self-government, this goal unites representatives of various parties.
“I will make every effort to continue to achieve common goals in this organization, regardless of the political mood or the specifics of the election period. This has always been the strength and advantage of LSA, working in this way in the last four years we have achieved very good results – the transfer of state land in cities and towns to municipalities, greater opportunities for municipalities to implement European Union investment projects, we have started the implementation processes of the Regional Development Program”, he said.
The board consists of 23 members – mayors of various cities and districts.
Suspicions were filed once morest M. Sinkevičius by law enforcement on November 30.
According to the prosecutor’s report, during the investigation, data was obtained that during the period 2019-2023, M. Sinkevičius possibly purchased property for personal use with the allocated funds and paid for the expenses of the mobile phone used by his spouse.
The politician, as a member of the municipal council of the Jonava district at that time, had the right to receive payments for expenses incurred while performing the functions of a council member, stationery, mail, telephone, internet connection, transport services, office space rent.
Upon receiving suspicions, the politician immediately suspended his membership in the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party and announced that he was suspending his powers as LSA president. However, the latter decision has yet to be approved by the board of the association and the appointment of a temporary head of the organization.
The Special Investigations Service is conducting a total of 17 pre-trial investigations due to possible abuse in municipal councils in the payment of payments to politicians for transport, communications, stationery.
According to law enforcement, M. Sinkevičius is the third person to be charged in this kind of pre-trial investigation.
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2024-07-19 02:30:57
