The Comptroller of Intelligence does not intend to investigate the activities of the VSD unless new details emerge

The Law on Intelligence Controllers provides that the ombudsman may refuse to examine a received complaint if the issue raised in the report has already been examined or is still being examined by the court or other competent authorities.

“NSGK is competent to investigate reports of intelligence officers. NSGK also examined this report in 2020. March 30 (…), made a decision regarding the activities of the Department of State Security of the Republic of Lithuania, which recommended improving the organization of internal work”, stated N. Statkus in a written reply to Elta.

According to N. Statkaus, the Office of the Controller of Intelligence has not yet received any complaints or appeals regarding the possibly illegal actions of the VSD during the last presidential election campaign.

“Therefore, according to the Law on Intelligence Controllers, the Office of Intelligence Controllers will not re-examine a report already examined by the competent authority (in this case, NSGK), unless new factual circumstances come to light,” he noted.

According to N. Statkaus, three years ago NSGK recommended VSD to improve the organization of internal work, to prepare relevant internal legal acts regulating the principles of submission of specific assignments by the management of the department, determination of tasks and their implementation and settlement. According to the controller, it was checked how VSD fulfilled these committee suggestions – the results of the check will be presented to NSGK members as well.

“The VSD was offered to record orders to collect intelligence information in writing or in information systems, indicating a clear legal basis; as well as establish a unit (units) for operational, management, compliance, and information systems control,” explained the controller.

“A detailed report on the implementation of the above-mentioned recommendations and “lessons learned” will be submitted to NSGK”, said N. Statkus.

However, assessing the current political context, N. Statkus noted that the Office of the Comptroller of Intelligence will monitor and evaluate how intelligence institutions will collect relevant information during the upcoming elections.

“(…) As new election campaigns are approaching, it is a good opportunity for the Office of Intelligence Controllers to monitor and assess how intelligence agencies collect intelligence information, process it, conduct inspections of natural or legal persons who could potentially be related to risks, dangers or threats, which may have significance for national security, state interests, social-political processes”, the ombudsman explained.

“This will be done in order to make sure that the activities of intelligence institutions meet the requirements of legality and the protection of human rights and freedoms,” he assured.

ELTA reminds that the debate on the possible investigation in the parliament arose after the appearance of journalists Dovydas Pancerov and Birutė Davidonytė for the book “The Speaker and the President”, which reveals the possibly illegal collection of data on private individuals by the VSD during the presidential election campaign. Considerable attention is also paid to the election campaign and the presidential period of Gitanas Nausėda, the then candidate for the post of the country’s leader.

However, despite the attention to history and the questions prepared by the ruling parties to both the VSD and the president and the Central Election Commission (CEC), the parliamentary investigation has not been launched so far.

After the General Prosecutor’s Office determined that in 2019 the appeal of a high-ranking intelligence officer – whistleblower – addressed to the then chairman of the Seimas NSGK, Vytautas Baku, was not properly examined, the question of the investigation was returned to the committee. At the beginning of the summer NSGK and General Prosecutor’s Office exchanged relevant data in order to assess whether there are still unanswered questions in the speaker’s history. However, then the chairman of NSGK Laurynas Kasčiūnas stated that he believes that it is “only a matter of time” when the committee headed by him will be granted the statute of a special commission of inquiry.

In addition, this week V. Bakas confirmed that he had prepared a draft resolution on the establishment of a temporary commission of inquiry. However, so far there is a lack of support for this in the parliament.

The VSD management strictly rejects the public accusations that the intelligence gathered information illegally. Head of department Darius Jauniškis insists that intelligence officials have been interested in the backgrounds of all presidential candidates in the pre-election period, which he says is standard practice.