On Thursday, the Seimas adopted the amendments to the Law on the Protection of Objects Important to Ensuring National Security: 94 Seimas members voted for it, and there were no abstentions.
The changes will allow the government’s Commission for Reviewing Transactions of Strategic Enterprises to assess whether a company or its partners seeking to participate in public procurement may be linked to unfriendly countries and pose a threat to national security.
Group companies would also be excluded from purchases if at least one member of the group operates in these countries.
Public procurement will also become unavailable to those companies whose managers, members of management or supervisory bodies are related to unfriendly countries.
As the author of the amendment, Ieva Pakarklytė, a member of the Freedom faction, told BNS, this is to avoid cases where companies file lawsuits against procurement organizations or the state due to loopholes in the law.
“The commission has not had a solid legal basis until now, and now it will have more tools and will be able to stop purchases,” I. Pakarklytė said to BNS on the eve of the vote.
According to her, the amendments adopted by the Seimas in June regarding the declaration of integrity, by which companies admit that they have no connections with Russia or other unfriendly countries, have loopholes.
“It is likely that the honesty declarations are filled out honestly, but not necessarily,” explained I. Pakarklytė.
If the amendments are signed by the president, they would enter into force on October 10.
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2024-09-28 09:34:14
