The purpose of the Chief Official Ethics Commission (COEC) to ensure that the public institutions and persons working in them served people in an ethical manner. The COEC is a collegial authority which is set up by the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania and is accountable to it.
Our mission: to help declaring persons and their managers to manage the risks posed by private interests, and to help disclose, in a timely and complete manner, their influence on the legislative process.
Our vision: an institution that helps finding the right way to manage conflicts of interest quickly and enables easy identification of influences on lawmaking.
Our objectives:
- to help persons to declare private interests and adjust them with public interests;
- to ensure that persons exerted influence to legislation in a transparent manner;
- in exercise of the powers set forth in the Republic of Lithuania Law on Prevention of Corruption, to prevent emergence and spread of corruption;
- in exercise of the powers set forth in the Code of Conduct for State Politicians of the Republic of Lithuania (CCSP), to help state politicians to behave in public life in an ethical manner;
- to coordinate formation of the official ethics policy in state and municipal institutions and bodies and other public sector entities;
- to carry out supervision of declaration of private interests, assessment and management of the risk of conflict of private interests, prevention of violations in state and municipal institutions and bodies, other public sector entities and other legal entities listed in the Republic of Lithuania Law on Adjustment of Public and Private Interests (LAPPI) in which the persons concerned work (hereinafter referred to as the “institutions and bodies”).
The COEC is authorised to:
- supervise the implementation of the LAPPI, the Law on Lobbying Activities (LLA) and the CCSP, put forward proposals on the improvement and implementation of the provisions of the afore-mentioned legal acts and take decisions and recommendations on the afore-mentioned issues;
- investigate notifications, complaints (notifications) and requests of persons regarding the conformity of actions of the persons concerned (except for members of the Seimas) with the provisions of the LAPPI;
- investigate notifications and requests of persons regarding the conformity of actions of natural or legal persons with the provisions of the LLA;
- carry out the investigation of the conduct of Chairmen and Deputy Chairmen of parliamentary political parties who are not members of the Seimas or municipal councillors, or are not appointed as Member of the Government in accordance with the procedure set forth by the CCSP;
- act as a mandatory preliminary dispute resolution institution in the cases provided for in the LAPPI;
- upon the request of entities of state politicians’ conduct control, state politicians or on its own initiative provide methodological assistance concerning the implementation of the provisions of the CCSP;
- put forward methodological recommendations to the ethics commissions of municipal councils and provide consultations to them on the issues regarding the implementation of legal acts;
- follow information announced by the mass media about possible violations of the provisions of the LAPPI, the LLA, CCSP and where reasonable data exists, carry out an investigation or transfer information for investigation to other entities of control provided for in the afore-mentioned laws;
- at the request of persons or on own initiative, put forward recommendations and opinion on the issues concerning implementation of the LAPPI;
- supervise the implementation of the LAPPI, the Law on Lobbying Activities (LLA) and the CCSP, put forward proposals on the improvement and implementation of the provisions of the afore-mentioned legal acts and take decisions and recommendations on the afore-mentioned issues;
- investigate notifications, complaints (notifications) and requests of persons regarding the conformity of actions of the persons concerned (except for members of the Seimas) with the provisions of the LAPPI;
- investigate notifications and requests of persons regarding the conformity of actions of natural or legal persons with the provisions of the LLA;
- carry out the investigation of the conduct of Chairmen and Deputy Chairmen of parliamentary political parties who are not members of the Seimas or municipal councillors, or are not appointed as Member of the Government in accordance with the procedure set forth by the CCSP;
- act as a mandatory preliminary dispute resolution institution in the cases provided for in the LAPPI;
- upon the request of entities of state politicians’ conduct control, state politicians or on its own initiative provide methodological assistance concerning the implementation of the provisions of the CCSP;
- put forward methodological recommendations to the ethics commissions of municipal councils and provide consultations to them on the issues regarding the implementation of legal acts;
- follow information announced by the mass media about possible violations of the provisions of the LAPPI, the LLA, CCSP and where reasonable data exists, carry out an investigation or transfer information for investigation to other entities of control provided for in the afore-mentioned laws;
- at the request of persons or on own initiative, put forward recommendations and opinion on the issues concerning implementation of the LAPPI;
The powers of the COEC do not extend to:
- examining notifications and requests concerning the activities of state and municipal institutions (as collegial institutions), lawfulness and reasonableness of the procedural decisions of prosecutors or pre-trial investigation officers;
- verifying the reasonableness and lawfulness of the decisions, resolutions, judgements and rulings passed by courts.