The Chancellery of the Seimas disclosed it to Lietuvos Zinios daily how the funds for representation were used by the parliament speaker and his seven deputies. According to the Statute of the Seimas, every month the parliament speaker and his deputies receive a sum of respectively 1 and 0.5 of the average monthly salary to cover representation expenses.
At present it is respectively LTL 2,340 (EUR 678) and LTL 1,170 (EUR 339). Last year, the parliament leadership spent LTL 79,000 (EUR 23,000) for reception of guests, LTL 10,000 (EUR 2,900) for flowers and funeral wreaths, LTL 7,000 (EUR 2,000) for souvenirs, gifts and cards, LTL 3,800 (EUR 1,100) for greetings, condolences, and subscriptions to publications.
The majority of these expenses are related with the Presidency of the EU Council in the second half of 2013. During 10 months of 2013, most funds for presentation were spent by Parliament Speaker Vydas Gedvilas (until he was replaced by Loreta Grauziniene); he spent the maximum authorised sum – LTL 19,700 (EUR 5,700). During October-December of 2013, Gedvilas, already as a deputy of the parliament speaker, spent another LTL 3,200 (EUR 927) for representation. Grauziniene, who took over the reins of the Seimas in October 2013, allocated LTL 6,400 (EUR 1.900) for representation; all the money was spent to receive guests.
Under the current procedure, the most expensive dinner of the parliament speaker with honoured foreign guests, should not cost more than LTL 160 (EUR 46) per person, while luncheon – LTL 150 (EUR 43) per person, meanwhile, the accommodation of a guest in a hotel should not exceed LTL 1,200 (EUR 348). According to the leadership of the Seimas, they agree to disclose representation expenses reports on the Seimas website. They promised to discuss this issue in the next meeting of the Board of the Seimas.
