Vilnius, March 30, BNS–Lithuanian prime minister Saulius Skvernelis said there are deliberations on changing the project for the reconstruction of the Palace of Sports to include a equip a building to host a Jewish history museum and for conferences. There was consideration on holding concerts and other cultural events in the project initiated by the former Government.

Vilnius mayor Remigijus Šimašius proposed setting up a Litvak History Museum next to the Palace of Sports which the Government is planning to renovate. “I think the Government has done the right thing in halting the untransparent bid begun earlier. But there should be a conference center there without any doubt. We just discussed that it would be more sensible if next to the conference center or partially integrated with the conference center there were a museum of Litvak history. It is probably this could be accomplished wonderfully and would become an attraction. We agreed to develop the idea further. I’m glad my opinion and the prime minister’s coincide on this,” the mayor of Vilnius told BNS after meeting with Lithuanian prime minister Saulius Skvernelis Thursday.

“It should be able to be used for conferences. Now there is a concept, a conference and concert hall, so it should be conferences and a museum,” the prime minister told reporters at parliament.

At their meeting Thursday the prime minister told the mayor he supported the idea to create a Litvak history museum there. The current project to renovate the Palace of Sports will have to be amended to accommodate the changes, the prime minister said.

“This would be, it seems, a museum of more than 600 years of the existence of [Jewish-BNS] history in Lithuania, and we certainly wouldn’t need to orient it towards very segmented, painful events. This shouldn’t be a Holocaust museum. I think it should be an interactive, modern and attractive center which could really draw tourists. I can’t say it’s analogous but there is such a concept in Warsaw,” Lithuanian PM Skvernelis said.

The former Government announced plans to reconstruct the Palace of Sports and to adapt it for use as a congress, conference and cultural events center. The Lithuanian bank Turto bankas broke off negotiations with the winner of the tender, a consortium led by the construction firm Irdaiva, after it became known one of the members of the commission for the tender, Tomas Lukoševičius, was employed at the same time by Turto bankas and the company in question. Lithuania’s Financial Crimes Investigation Service investigating possible fraud in public tenders Tuesday carried out a search of the company and arrested its director, Irmantas Kubilius.

BNS learned the Financial Crimes Investigation Service was investigating this public tender among others, in which the only company to enter negotiations was Irdaiva. On Wednesday the Government decided not to allocate monies for the Palace of Sports in this year’s State Investments Program, and the prime minister said that decision was made because of the lack of transparency in procedures conducted.

The prime minister said the courts had rejected without further recourse claims by tender winner Irdaiva for damages from Turto bankas’s decision to no longer honor their agreement, and that a new public tender would be held.

Last year the Public Tender Service announced Turto bankas will have to reconsider the budget for the tender and the price provided by the consortium because it appeared inflated at 27.79 million euros.