At the end of August, Povilas Pinelis, a Social Democrat and member of the Vilnius City Council, wrote to the VTEK on behalf of his parliamentary group. He requested an investigation into whether, following the capital city council’s decision to allocate premises to an organisation currently chaired by Benkunskas himself, the latter had failed to keep his public and private interests separate.
ELTA notes that in June, Vilnius City Council decided to let 30 square metres of premises, located at Trakų g. 2–7, to the Vilnius Club without a tender, setting the monthly rent at 13 euros per square metre. A total of 390 euros.
At present, the Vilnius Club has been granted the use of 694 square metres of premises at Trakų g. 2 on a non-competitive basis.
Benkunskas, who chaired the meeting, and Remigijus Šimašius, the former mayor of the capital and a member of the Vilnius Club, who was present at the meeting, recused themselves from the discussion of this matter at the suggestion of other politicians.
As Vilma Lajauskaitė, Head of the Real Estate Division of the Vilnius City Municipality Administration, who presented the matter during the council meeting, pointed out, the premises sought without a tender constitute an emergency exit in the same building that currently houses the Vilnius Club’s headquarters. According to her, current legislation provides conditions for obtaining them without a tender.
Pinelis, who lodged a complaint with the VTEK, told ELTA at the time that, in his view, the Vilnius City Council could not have considered this matter even after Benkunskas recused himself, as he did so only at the request of other participants in the meeting. Furthermore, in the Social Democrats’ view, the fact that the municipal officials who drafted the proposal reported to the mayor could have influenced the decision on allocating the premises.
For his part, Benkunskas insisted that he saw no conflict of interest. According to him, the decision to become president of the Vilnius Club is dictated by the organisation’s internal rules, rather than his personal choice.
It is true, however, that the Vilnius Club’s articles of association, which ELTA has seen, contain no clause stipulating that the Mayor of Vilnius is also obliged to serve as the organisation’s president.
Operating for almost 28 years
As noted, the public institution Vilnius Club has been operating for almost 28 years; it currently employs six insured staff members, whose average salary in June 2026 stood at 1,646 euros ‘on paper’.
Publicly available information from the organisation’s publications shows that the Vilnius Club carries out initiatives relating to cultural and historical memory, organises conferences and commemorations, and awards prizes for academic work in Vilnius.
As stated on the Vilnius Club’s website, its members currently include former mayors of the capital – Artūras Zuokas and Remigijus Šimašius.