The president noted that the Ministry of Social Security and Labour commissioned a study for EUR 1.5 million, for the implementation of which 14 employees of the ministry itself were employed. Similar situation is in the whole civil service sector.
"There are clear examples of abuse of civil service at the Ministry of Social Security and Labour. It is intolerable that civil servants turn their direct work into projects worth millions, while they themselves take part and receive money. The minister must interrupt such money-making methods immediately," the president said.
Next, Grybauskaite addressed the deliberately lagging reform of care homes for children, when funding is allocated for the bureaucratic apparatus, instead of reducing the number of care homes. Currently over 100 child care institutions operate in Lithuania, accommodating nearly 4,000 children. This costs the state at least EUR 33.5 million per year.
"The Ministry of Social Security and Labour has been implementing the reform of child care homes for over a decade. However, there are no results but only ineffective discussions in working groups. Child care homes are a Soviet legacy and only their administrations are interested in preserving such institutions. Children have become hostages of the bureaucratic apparatus in order to receive funding," said the president.
According to Grybauskaite, the state must establish conditions for children to be raised in families instead of investing in ineffective care institutions. The president gave child care home Putinas located in Marijampole as an example. Floor space per child in this institution is as much as 200 square metres. It costs EUR 1,800 per month to sustain one child living there, whereas the state allocates EUR 300 or EUR 150 to children living in foster care families.
