Vaičiulis assured the portal that he had carried out his duty to check the councillors' expenditure reports in good faith and that his party affiliation was unrelated to Vyšniauskas's avoidance of the audit.
„We were not in such a relationship and communication that such things could influence us. I did my duty honestly, fairly, and principally. As far as I understood and did, I acted following the law, and there was neither my own nor anyone else's; only justice was done within the limits of the law,“ he told Delfi. lt.
Vaičiulis also claims that he did not discuss the audit with Vyšniauskas. The parliamentarian explained the opposite.
However, the former Auditor General resigned from the Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats (TS-LKD) party on Tuesday. Vaičiulis explained this decision by the upcoming elections – according to him, the party's branch had nominated him in the southern single-mandate constituency of Sūduva, but his candidacy had not been approved.
As ELTA reported, the expenses of Andrius Vyšniauskas, a Member of the Seimas who served in the Marijampolė Council last term, were not evaluated by the audit of the municipality's control. In addition, the former Conservative returned part of the funds to the city after the Let’s Clarify initiative was launched.
According to Jolanta Zubienė, the controller of Marijampolė Municipality, the expenses of Vaida Giraitytė-Juškevičienė, a Labour MEP who will become a Member of Seimas in 2020, were also not audited.
Juozas Vaičiulis, the former Municipal Auditor, explained that the parliamentarians' legal immunity prevented the audit of the members of the Seimas.
On Thursday, Prosecutor General Nida Grunskienė addressed the Seimas, asking it to lift the legal immunity of former Conservative MP Vyšniauskas.
The prosecutor's office reported that Vyšniauskas may have submitted forged documents to the Marijampolė municipal administration regarding reimbursement of his expenses for his activities as a councillor. It is alleged that more than EUR 2.1 thousand were paid to the politician unjustifiably and illegally. The Seimas will take the final decision on lifting the immunity of the Member of the Seimas.
Shortly after the announcement of the Prosecutor General's Office, Vyšniauskas announced that he would stop his membership in the TS-LKD and resign from the post of the elder of the Conservative group in the Seimas. The politician also announced that he would no longer serve on the Seimas's Committee on Law and Order.
