The Board of the Seimas and chairs of political groups had a meeting on possible changes in regulation of the parliament’s office expenses following reports that MPs rushed to buy computers and other equipment as the end of their term of office nears.
“We heard a number of good constructive proposals, including purely technical changes such as to obligate the MPs to report their expenses every month instead of every quarter,” the Seimas speaker told reporters after the meeting.
These minor technical amendments would be introduced in the nearest future, she added.
Čmilytė-Nielsen said that the meeting also discussed another way forward, which is amending the Constitution. The chairs agreed to further discuss these possible changes concerning parliamentary funds within the groups, according to her.
“As for more fundamental possible changes, we have discussed both the law on guarantees for MPs and a possible change to the Constitution. We agreed that the political groups will ask their members and see if there is broad support for that, especially considering that the term [of office – ELTA] is coming to an end,” the Seimas speaker said.
Čmilytė-Nielsen admitted that it is not yet clear whether a constitutional amendment would secure enough support in the Seimas, suggesting that the procedure would move to the next Parliament’s agenda.
“We will see how the votes look among the groups. There are very different opinions even within the groups. (&) There is not much enthusiasm for changing the Constitution,” the Seimas speaker said.
The meeting comes after reports from public activist Andrius Tapinas’ Skaidrinam (Transparency) initiative, which targeted the expenses of MPs following the so-called receipts’ scandal involving municipal institutions that erupted last year.
A number of MPs were found to have used funds earmarked for parliamentary activities to buy computer and telephone equipment, as well as audio equipment at the end of their term of office.