According to the decision of the municipal council, the municipality of Jurbarka district planned to invest more than 218 thousand from the local fee for household waste management in UAB Tauragės regional waste management center. Eur. In this way, with the additional monetary contributions of Tauragė, Jurbarka and Šilalė districts and Pagėgiai municipalities, almost 800 thousand The authorized capital of the company should be increased by EUR. Analogous decisions have already been taken by Tauragė district and Pagėgiai municipal councils.
Šilalė council does not agree to increase the authorized capital
We will remind you that at the council meeting, council members belonging to the opposition asked whether other municipalities will also make decisions on increasing the authorized capital of the Waste Management Center by investing in the works done in the past. It turns out that their worries were not unfounded – the Šilalė district municipal council questioned whether the debts of waste managers would not be simply covered with the funds allocated from the municipal budgets, and increasing the authorized capital to cover debts is prohibited.
As stated in the article of the newspaper “Tauragės kurjeris” “If they don’t get money, TRATC will “have to go for a walk”, the Finance Committee of the Šilalė Municipality Council sat down to consider the possibility of increasing the company’s authorized capital, to which the new manager D. Arlauskienė, who was invited to present the financial situation, made public the astonishingly bad performance of her leadership the company’s financial situation.
“In 2001, a waste management structure was created in Tauragė County. Then a contract was signed to establish the Leikiškės landfill and other infrastructure. The total estimate was 6.6 million. Everything was carried out by APVA (Environmental Project Management Agency, – last ed.). At that time, the company did not have such an employee who could carry out public procurement. 70 percent of the project value was provided from the European Union Cohesion Fund, 20 percent from the state budget, 10 percent was contributed by the company by taking a loan from Luminor Bank. We are paying that loan until now, the last installment will be in September. However, the project was started in 2006. During that time, the economy was changing, and inflation led to certain jobs being adjusted for inflation. This means that main contractors were inflated by 22 percent to the original project price, which the European Commission disagreed with. They said that there could not be 22 percent inflation, that there is 15 percent. However, the Cohesion Fund had already transferred the money to the company and the European Commission estimated that 1 million was too much. Accordingly, the purchase value was reduced by 1 million and the share of the Cohesion Fund was reduced accordingly. As a result, the company received 856 thousand euros, that amount had to be returned as incorrectly absorbed funds. Those costs were found to be ineligible, so the company must return those funds. Since 2010, everyone around has helped as much as they could – former managers of the company, members of the Seimas appealed both to the European Commission and to the court disputing the decision that the funds should be returned. However, the decision was negative. It was decided that the funds should be returned to TRATC. Since the company was unable to repay, Turto bankas lent it, the installments are now calculated for Turto bankas until 2030. This is a huge burden for the company. It was clarified that this amount cannot be included in the toll”, said D. Arlauskienė.
According to D. Arlauskienė, the company’s financial situation is currently very complicated. in 2022 the company suffered a net loss of 621 thousand euros, the loss in 2023 will be the same – 620 thousand euros. In the last two years, the Waste Management Center has reached a loss of almost 1.3 million euros. And this, according to D. Arlauskienė, means that there is a question about the continuity of the company’s activities. And right here, the head of the company Šilalė tried to prove to the politicians that she is not asking for money to cover debts, but to invest in the already created infrastructure. It is said that the residents use it, the towns of the county are clean and well-maintained, writes “Tauragė Kurjeris”.
“Now we use toll money to cover tails. And the time will soon come when you will need to cover current accounts. We will come to a point where there will be nothing left. Then we will go to the bank, hopefully we will get a loan, but we are risky. 50 thousand euros have already been given for working capital, that’s all the bank could offer. Everything is already pledged and secured. I see no other way out. The company needs to move forward”, said the director of TRATC emotionally.
It turns out that 50 thousand euros is not the only TRATC loan: over 300 thousand euros have been borrowed for the creation of a waste sorting system, another 150 thousand euros for working capital.
However, while considering the issue during the meeting, something else became clear – that the company, which is on the verge of bankruptcy, hired a number of new employees. As D. Arlauskienė stated, there were 29 employees when she came to work. The new director accepted the manager of the landfill, the manager of development, a communication specialist, for whom a new post was also established, and an additional sorter was hired at the landfill.
We also took an interest in the number of employees and wages of the company. It is stated on the portal relikisai.lt that 37 employees (insured) work in the waste management center of the Tauragė region. Average salary of all employees in 2024 in February it was EUR 2,045.99 before taxes. Compared to 2024 compared to the average salary in January (1,711.72 EUR), it increased by 334.27 EUR (+19.5%). in 2023 in December, the average salary was EUR 1,576.50.
Unlike the politicians of Tauragė, Pagėgiai or Jurbarkas, the people of Šila easily decided not to allocate hundreds of thousands to waste managers, and tasked the municipal Control and Audit Service to find out whether this investment would violate the law. It is not clear when this will be done, as well as when the Šilalė council will include this issue in the agenda of the meeting.
According to “Tauragė Kurjerios”, D. Arlauskienė reacted sensitively to such a decision of the Finance Committee of the Šilalė Council – she said that until the municipality allocates money to the company, “no one will move from the point of death”. “Either we go forward or we divide. I am asking you from the human side. It is extremely difficult for me”, the director complained.
Went to rest
Apparently, considering the state of the company in Šilalė was really difficult, because the director, who had been managing the waste management center for just four months, left for Italy at the beginning of April together with a group of administrative specialists.
In the article “To Turin – to relax from waste management” of the newspaper “Šilalės artojas”, it is written that the photos published on social networks last week show how fun six employees of the Waste Management Center of the Tauragė region are having a good time in Turin: Director Donvina Arlauskienė, her deputy Rimantė Gailienė, Waste Management department head Vilmantė Krištopaitienė, accountant-accountant Laura Statkuvienė, controller Martina Skėrienė and communication specialist Irūna Poškaitė, who has just started working in the company.
When the newspaper sent an inquiry to the communication specialist, the answer was that “The Labor Code provides for the right of employees to annual leave, and the Director of the Company used this right.”
I. Poškaitė remained silent about other employees’ travel destinations to Italy, excusing that “the Company cannot comment or answer how the Company’s employees spend their time outside of work”.
From this it can be assumed that not only the director, but also all five employees of the administration visited Turin during the holidays, writes “Šilalė artojas”.
By the way, the Labor Code stipulates that for the first year of work, annual leave is granted after working at least half of the number of working days per work year. D. Arlauskienė could not do that because she only started managing the company in December.
Will there be a local toll?
All four municipalities must approve the increase in the authorized capital of the waste management center of the Tauragė region. If at least one does not agree, the waste handlers will not receive the funds. If all four agree, the possibility is not ruled out that the fee to amortize these funds may become even more expensive for the residents of the region’s municipalities, “Tauragė Kurjeris” fears.
It is true that it is likely that the toll for the residents of Jurbarkas district will not increase, at least for now, because they already pay so much that in 2023 there will be over 400,000. The balance of EUR, from which it was decided to save the waste manager. When one of the council members asked about this during the February 29 council meeting, questioning whether the rates of the local fee for waste management are not too high, Mayor Skirmantas Mockevičius replied that the local fee rates are constantly being raised in the Šilalė and Tauragė districts, and there is no need to do so in the Jurbarkas district – apparently, in the opinion of the mayor, this is sufficient justification for the calculation of the tariff.
Jurbarkas district municipality mayor Skirmantas Mockevičius’ comment
We asked what the Mayor of Jurbarka District Municipality Skirmantas Mockevičius thinks about the position of Šilalė District Municipality, the future of the Tauragė Region Waste Management Center and the actions of its manager.
The municipal councils of Jurbarkas, Tauragės and Šilalės have already made decisions regarding the allocation of funds to UAB Tauragės Regional Waste Management Center. However, while considering the draft decision at the meeting of the Šilalė Municipality Council, some members of the council had various doubts. As a result, a protocol decision was made to request a conclusion from the municipal controller on the legality of such a decision. The conclusion of the controller is expected in the near future, and then the council’s decision will be prepared. The Šilalė municipal council does not question the need to finance the UAB Tauragės regional waste management center with municipal contributions, because we must ensure that waste from residents is collected, but they want a little more detailed analysis. I have no doubt that the members of the Šilalė district municipal council, realizing that this is a joint enterprise of the region’s municipalities, will appreciate the efforts of the other three municipal councils and jointly take responsibility for the proper functioning of the joint institution’s activities.
Regarding the company manager’s trip to Italy: I talked about this with the director of UAB Tauragės regional waste management center, she assured me that it was a trip of several days, during vacation, with personal funds. The right to rest for every citizen of Lithuania is guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania (its Article 49), so neither the law nor ethics were violated in this case.
Regarding your question about the newly hired 8 employees. The director assured me that after her appointment, there was a personnel change, some employees were fired and others were hired in their place. Only one person – a public relations specialist – was newly hired, until then such a position did not exist in the company. Thus, the number of employees did not change substantially. Regarding salary increase: when the legislation changes, the company must raise the salary accordingly, in addition, it has to compete in the labor market, so the company manager must ensure the attraction of the necessary specialists by applying adequate remuneration.
Summarizing the comment, it should be noted that most regional waste management centers in Lithuania are experiencing difficulties of one kind or another. However, these are Lithuanian companies that provide extremely necessary services, and we are all responsible for their proper functioning. In this case, the municipalities of Jurbarkas, Pagėgiai, Šilalė, Tauragė districts are equally responsible. I trust the mayor of Šilalė, council members, and I have no doubt that they trust the teams of other municipalities.
Tags: Waste managers drowning cheerfully investments rest early news
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