TWO CEOs DETAINED FOR AN ATTEMPT TO BRIBE AN EMPLOYEE OF THE LITHUANIAN COMPETITION COUNCIL

Officials of Special Investigation Service (STT) detained two CEOs for an attempt to bribe an employee of the Lithuanian Competition Council (KT). The KT‘s employee refused to accept 14,000 euro bribe, an equivalent of the employee’s annual salary, in exchange for a favourable decision in a suspected bid rigging case.

If bid rigging in a public procurement charges were presented and confirmed, serious sanctions could be applied to the companies involved: imposing a fine of up to 10 per cent of the annual turnover and cancelling allocations of the EU financial support (up to 174,000 euro in this case).

„As the Chairman of KT I am extremely proud to work with both professional and honest colleagues. Taking this opportunity I would also like to remind all undertakings that leniency is a far much safer way to escape negative consequences of a competition probe“ – says Šarūnas Keserauskas, Chairman of the Lithuanian Competition Council.

This particular bribery case is a result of a close cooperation between KT and STT. STT is very active in combating corruption in the EU funded projects and seriously reacts to alerts about suspected bid rigging and anticompetitive agreements.