Government of agriculture to be criticized

On Wednesday was arranged a meeting between the president Dalia Grybauskaitė and the leader of the agriculture department Vigilijus Jukna, during which the president underlined that the Ministry of Agriculture (pl. Ministerstwo Rolnictwa) is one of those departments which are the most suspected of the lack of transparency and the level of politicization. The president faulted the management for nepotism, promoting people of their circle, opaque distribution of funds and unfair tendering.

The minister Vigilijus Jukna was delegated by the Labour Party (pl. Partia Pracy). In the department of agriculture tree vice-ministers help him: conservative Mindaugas Kuklierius (by the way, after the election to Seym was promoted by the Labour Party which strived for making him the minister of agriculture), representative of the Labour Party Živilė Pinskuvienė and vice-minister on behalf of the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania, EAPL (pl. Akcja Wyborcza Polaków na Litwie, AWPL) Leokadia Poczykowska.

Delegated by EAPL Leokadia Poczykowska was the only vice-minister in the department of agriculture who did not hear any objections or criticism from the president Dalia Grybauskaitė. The fact that Leokadia Poczykowska works on this position honestly and competently was underlined a few weeks earlier (June 16) during the meeting between representatives of the governing coalition and Dalia Grybauskaitė. All this confirmed Rita Tamašunienė, governor of the fraction of EAPL in Lithuanian Seym who was present at the meeting in the President’s office.

According to the ‘Žinių radijas’, the minister Vigilijus Jukna, asked today whether he intends to change the members of his team, especially the vice-minister on behalf of the Labour Party Party Živilė Pinskuvienė whose surname appears in the so-called ‘black list’, the leader of the department claimed that this is in question now.

We remind that at the beginning of June the president of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė confirmed journalists that Lithuanian Special Research Service (pl. litewska Służba Badań Specjalnych) presented her and the premier a document (so-called ‘black list’) of suspicious vice-ministers of the current government. Some political analysts believe that such a list is contrived and is a weapon in hands of D. Grybauskaitė which has to bring her better results in the popularity ratings.