R. Morkūnaitė-Mikulėnienė: it will not be possible to connect parliamentary funds to the salary for this term

“This term will definitely not be able to be done due to the connection, because there are no funds in the budget to pay the taxes from that amount, it might only be done with another budget, which means also with the next term,” R. Morkūnaitė-Mikulėnienė told LRT radio on Thursday.

She said she did not see a problem if parliamentary funds were reduced or linked to salaries.

“(…) those parliamentary expenses are provided for by the constitutional norm. There were discussions – maybe keep one euro, and add the other part to the remuneration and pay all the taxes from that,” said the elder of the faction.

This is what she said following public activist Andriis Tapinas extended the campaign for “Skaidrina” and began to examine the use of funds allocated to members of the Seimas.

According to the member of the Seimas, discussions on the issue of parliamentary funds will definitely take place. It remains possible to adjust the current order of their use.

“Perhaps it is possible to adjust the current order, to bring more clarity, but until now those opinions differed, but there were certainly not one hundred percent who would say – yes, we refuse to leave one euro for so much knowledge, such reality, I think we will continue those conversations,” said R. Morkūnaitė-Mikulėnienė.

According to her, the members of the Seimas should ask themselves whether the current procedure and costs, “every time this kind of browsing” is a pleasant process.

According to R. Morkūnaitė-Mikulėnienė, both in the Seimas and in her faction there are colleagues who are unwilling to change the existing order simply because of the specifics of parliamentarians’ work – some are more concentrated in cities, others who work in single mandates, visit communities, travel around Lithuania, order advertisements in newspapers for meetings and incurs other costs.

The debate on the use of parliamentary funds arose following questioning the expenses of the representative of the Freedom Party, Marius Matijošaitis, when A. Tapinas announced that the member of the Seimas bought professional musical equipment, computers, a printer, a Samsung projector, a handmade leather case for a Macbook with the funds allocated for parliamentary activities. , the latest Samsung phone for more than 2 thousand. euros, additionally rented computer equipment for almost 500 euros per month.

On Tuesday, M. Matijošaitis announced that he was suspending his membership in the Freedom Party and withdrawing from the European Parliament (EP) election list.

At that time, last week the Minister of Energy and MP Dainius Kreivys returned the parliamentary funds received from the beginning of 2021, over 18 thousand. euros. D. Kreivys commented that the authors of the study had questions regarding the use of parliamentary funds for twelve-year-old car insurance.

Members of the Seimas are allocated a monthly amount of 0.8 of the average monthly salary for expenses related to their parliamentary activities: rent of an office, computer equipment, communication services, transport costs, car operation, souvenirs, services of public information producers and the like.

Members of the Seimas spent more than 2 million for parliamentary activities last year. euros, according to the report of the Ethics and Procedures Commission of the Seimas. Practically the same amount was used in 2022.

During the past year, each member of the Seimas might use 18.5 thousand for parliamentary activities. euros, almost the entire amount was spent by more than half a dozen parliamentarians.