{"id":1212,"date":"2025-08-09T17:03:23","date_gmt":"2025-08-09T14:03:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroomin.eu\/en\/?p=1212"},"modified":"2025-08-10T18:31:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T15:31:16","slug":"stt-european-funding-in-lithuania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsroomin.eu\/en\/stt-european-funding-in-lithuania\/","title":{"rendered":"STT: European Funding in Lithuania Lacks Transparency"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"STT\"
| Image source: STT |<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Special Investigation Service (STT) conducted an anti-corruption examination<\/a> of the Startuok instrument and identified serious violations in loan distribution. The main emphasis is on the fact that the national development bank ILTE<\/strong> has \u201cexcessive freedom<\/em>\u201d in decision-making, which jeopardizes the transparent and efficient use of state and European funds<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUnlimited Discretion\u201d and Non-Transparent Rules<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

According to the STT, the current loan granting rules give ILTE bank too much freedom, which the service calls \u201cunlimited discretion<\/em><\/strong>\u201d. Procedures for evaluating applicants, their riskiness, and creditworthiness, as well as loan granting conditions, are regulated by internal, non-public documents<\/strong>. This creates conditions under which the bank can make different decisions in similar situations, violating the principle of equal rights for all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the specific problems<\/a> identified by the STT:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u261b Unclear criteria for collateral:<\/strong> The rules do not define on what criteria assets can be deemed \u201cunsuitable security\u201d or what constitutes \u201clegal impediments\u201d. This allows the bank to accept or reject collateral at its discretion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u261b \u201cExceptional cases\u201d without rules:<\/strong> The scheme does not specify what exactly constitutes an \u201cexceptional case\u201d where loan collateral may not be applied at all. This is particularly risky, given that the loan amount can reach 3 million euros.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u261b Lack of grant control:<\/strong> There are no clear criteria for writing off a portion of the loan (up to 20%) as a grant. Also, project summaries are not publicly available, which prevents an assessment of whether projects were properly implemented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u261b Insufficient external oversight:<\/strong> There is no independent control over ILTE\u2019s activities, which was also confirmed in the State Control of Lithuania\u2019s report for 2021\u20132024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Loans to Loss-Making Companies and \u201cShell Companies\u201d<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

The STT report provides specific examples illustrating the problems:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u261b In 2025, a company that incurred losses in 2024 and had the highest level of credit risk<\/strong> received a loan of over 500 thousand euros<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u261b Another company, established in the same year and having only one employee<\/strong>, received a loan of over 1.3 million euros<\/strong>, which raises questions about its ability to meet financial obligations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These examples, according to the STT, are a direct consequence of incomplete legal regulation and lack of oversight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

STT Requirements: Transparency and Independent Oversight<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion of its anti-corruption examination, the STT proposed to the Ministry of Economy and Innovation to improve legal regulation. The service insists on the need to create clear, public, and equal conditions<\/strong> for all applicants and to establish independent oversight<\/strong> over ILTE\u2019s decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOnly in this way can the transparent, responsible, and socially beneficial use of state and European funds<\/strong> be achieved<\/em>,\u201d the STT statement emphasizes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ministry of Economy must publicly report within two months on how it plans to address the comments and proposals outlined in the conclusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

NEWSROOM IN<\/strong><\/a> notes:<\/strong> ILTE<\/strong> is Lithuania\u2019s national development bank with a share capital of 203.438 million euros<\/strong>, 100% state-owned. It positions itself as a \u201cgreen finance institution\u201d \u2014 the first competence center in Lithuania and the Baltic States that advises on sustainable development and achieving EU Green Deal goals, founded on values such as \u201ccreative curiosity, balanced courage, and community in diversity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Startuok has been operating in Lithuania for several years and is intended for young, aspiring, or social impact project-implementing companies, as well as Ukrainian companies operating in Lithuania. What \u201csocial impact projects\u201d are and how many young startups have received support could not be found on the website of the \u201cgreen finance institution\u201d. However, in 2024, information<\/a> about 100 contracts under this program was available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Special Investigation Service (STT) conducted an anti-corruption examination of the Startuok instrument and identified serious violations in loan distribution. The main emphasis is on the fact that the national development bank ILTE has \u201cexcessive freedom\u201d in decision-making, which jeopardizes the transparent and efficient use of state and European funds. \u201cUnlimited Discretion\u201d and Non-Transparent Rules [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1213,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_newsroomin_seo_keywords":"","_newsroomin_seo_lead_override":"","_newsroomin_disable_ads":false,"_newsroomin_is_archived":"","_newsroomin_tooltips":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lithuania"],"tooltips":[],"newsroomin_tooltips":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsroomin.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsroomin.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsroomin.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsroomin.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsroomin.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsroomin.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsroomin.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsroomin.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsroomin.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsroomin.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}