Lithuania Results Report 2021-2023

Lithuania’s fifth action planAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen... resulted in the launch of a public beneficial ownershipDisclosing beneficial owners — those who ultimately control or profit from a business — is essential for combating corruption, stemming illicit financial flows, and fighting tax evasion. Technical... register, allowing civil society and journalists to access this information for the first time. However, data on public procurementTransparency in the procurement process can help combat corruption and waste that plagues a significant portion of public procurement budgets globally. Technical specifications: Commitments that aim t... was not published in open format.

Early ResultsEarly results refer to concrete changes in government practice related to transparency, citizen participation, and/or public accountability as a result of a commitment’s implementation. OGP’s Inde...:

Lithuania’s fifth action plan had three commitments that addressed new policy areas – beneficial ownership transparencyAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, transparency occurs when “government-held information (including on activities and decisions) is open, comprehensive, timely, freely available to the pub... More, publishing public procurement data in open dataBy opening up data and making it sharable and reusable, governments can enable informed debate, better decision making, and the development of innovative new services. Technical specifications: Polici... format, and standardizing how the government communicates the potential social impact of draft legislationCreating and passing legislation is one of the most effective ways of ensuring open government reforms have long-lasting effects on government practices. Technical specifications: Act of creating or r... to the public. This marked a change from the fourth action plan (2018-2020), which mostly carried forward unfinished commitments from the third plan (2016-2018).

Commitments 1 and 2 were evaluated as promising commitments in the IRM Action Plan Review. For CommitmentOGP commitments are promises for reform co-created by governments and civil society and submitted as part of an action plan. Commitments typically include a description of the problem, concrete action... 1, the Centre of Registers launched Lithuania’s beneficial ownership register, accessible to civil society and journalists upon registration, identification, and demonstrating a “legitimate interest”. Before the action plan, Lithuania was one of only three EU Member States without a beneficial ownership register. Civil society and journalists have used the register for their investigations. Commitment 2 aimed to publish procurement data using the Open ContractingA transparent procurement process, known as open contracting, increases competition, improves public service delivery, and ensures governments better value for their money. Technical specifications: C... Data Standard, covering the entire procurement cycle (from planning, tendering, and awarding the contract, to implementation), and all government sectors. However, the Public Procurement Office did not implement this commitment.

CompletionImplementers must follow through on their commitments for them to achieve impact. For each commitment, OGP’s Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) evaluates the degree to which the activities outlin...

Out of the three commitments, two were fully implemented. The Centre of Registers launched Lithuania’s beneficial ownership register, thus implementing Commitment 1. Public procurement data under Commitment 2 was not opened due to the ongoing litigation with the supplier. Commitment 3 was completed, as the Office of the Government created a sub-section on the My Government portal with the lawmaking plan, legislation to be adopted, the expected timelines, and higher-impact acts, presented in easy-to-understand language.

Participation and Co-Creation

The Office of the Government continued to coordinate Lithuania’s participation in OGP. Aside from OGP-related work, it assists the Prime Minister in implementing policies and coordinates the work of the ministries. One of the three commitments was carried out by the Office of the Government. The fifth action plan’s co-creation process was more inclusive and participatory than the previous co-creation process. Participants at the public consultations voted on which proposals to prioritize, and the results were published online. During the co-creation, an initial electronic survey received 18 proposals, 14 of which came from citizens and civil society (including the three in the action plan).[1] The proposals were discussed at a consultation in May 2020, where more than 50 participants voted on which proposals to prioritize.[2] The Office of the Government organized four working group consultations in 2020 where participants discussed the five selected proposals in detail and decided on which to include as commitments.[3] During implementation, communication with interested stakeholders continued.

Implementation in context

A 2022 decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) annulled the provisions of the Fifth EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive requiring public access to beneficial ownership information as means to prevent and detect money laundering.[4] Though the IRM recommended guaranteeing full access to data on the register without administrative obstacles, CSOs were content that the registry exists in its current scope – open only for public sector institutions, journalists, and companies that provided data. If CSOs prove legitimate interest, they may also obtain beneficial ownership information, but only in machine non-readable files.[5] As stated by the founder of investigative journalism center SIENA, the fact that Lithuania’s registry is only available for journalists rather than all citizens helped keep the register functioning while other registries in Europe were closed.[6] The Centre of Registers also admitted that limited access to data was the main reason why the CJEU decision did not have a significant impact on the commitment.

[1] Government of the Republic of Lithuania, 2021-2023 Action Plan for Lithuania’s Participation in the International Initiative ‘Open Government Partnership’, p 6, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/wpcontent/uploads/2021/06/Lithuania_Action-Plan_2021-2023_EN.pdf

[2] Republic of Lithuania, p 10, https://epilietis.lrv.lt/uploads/epilietis/documents/files/Konferencijos%20ataskaita%2005_21.pdf

[3] The two discarded proposals involved 1) informing NGOs operating in the areas that will be affected by the envisaged legal regulationGovernment reformers are developing regulations that enshrine values of transparency, participation, and accountability in government practices. Technical specifications: Act of creating or reforming ... immediately after the public announcement of the draft legal acts in the Legal Acts Information System, and 2) creating an information platform for NGO competitions. According to the action plan, these activities will be implemented outside the scope of the OGP action plan.

[4] European Union Law, Judgment of the Court (Grand Chamber) of 22 November 2022, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/TXT/?uri=CELEX:62020CJ0037

[5] Ieva Dunčikaitė (Transparency International Lithuania), interview by the IRM, 5 January 2024.

[6] Šarūnas Černiauskas (founder of SIENA), interview by the IRM, 20 February 2024.