Marius Švaikauskas was elected the Director General of the Road Administration
Since the 24th of February of this year, the Joint Stock Company Lithuanian Road Administration under the Ministry of Transport and Communications (hereinafter referred to as the Road Administration) is lead by the Director General Marius Švaikauskas. The new Head of the company was elected for a five-year period by the Board of the Road Administration.
According to Vaidotas Balynas, the Head of the Road Administration, since the beginning of this year, the company became a joint stock company, and new opportunities occurred, which brought new challenges and expectations for the Head and his team.
“I am glad that a professional that had company management and change management experience has joined our team at this stage in particular. The vision of reorganization of operations of the company fully correlates with how the Board sees the transformation of the company, it is also important that the values of the new Head and the Board match. I believe that by using the experience that Marius has, we will implement the objectives set by the shareholder and we will install a new organizational culture and processes in the company that will allow creating a clear, transparent and effective management system of the national road infrastructure based on the best practices of modern management”, said the Chairman of the Board.
“The objective set for the new Head of the Road Administration is to take the entire system of the national road development and care to a lot higher level of quality in order for the lack of funds to remain the only matter to resolve, instead of delayed works or their quality. It is necessary to immediately make decision that would allow fluent implementation of strategical projects of the State within the established periods. The priority is “Via Baltica”, Utena road, military mobility projects, condition of bridges and viaducts, road-tolling project (e-tolling). Together with the new Head, we expect a fast and fluent transformation of this company’s culture”, said the Minister of Transport Marius Skuodis.
“I am becoming the Head of the Road Administration while the company is on the verge of big changes. I am carefully accepting this challenge and I believe that together with the team we will succeed in resolving strategic projects and improving the pace of their implementation, we will raise the bar for the quality of works and we will transform the company into the leader of the sector. I understand very well that for the Lithuanian Road Administration, which has strategic importance for the State, the transparency and reputation in all fields is a mandatory condition when it comes to the work of contractors, the quality of roads and the decisions made by Heads, including me. Hence, irrespective of how the company managed these risks until now, I am planning to introduce in the company zero tolerance for non-transparent transactions, decisions, tenders or personal relationships”, said Marius Švaikauskas, the new Head of the Road Administration.
The new Head of the Road Administration was selected in a competition. The Ministry of Transport has announced the competition for the position of the Director of the Road Administration in December of 2022.
Before the Board has selected the new Head of the Road Administration, the country’s responsible authorities have submitted all required certificates on the M. Švaikauskas’ suitability for this position. During the Board meeting, possible conflicts of interests with the company’s contractors or their possibility, if M. Švaikauskas started to work at the Road Administration, were discussed. The new Head proposed the measures to apply in order to avoid the conflict of interests. One of them is to create unified systems in the company, i.e. standards and methods to be applied to all contractors and partners of the company without any exceptions, as well as in order to eliminate subjective decisions that may cause conflicts of interests.
Until December of 2022, M. Švaikauskas worked in the State-owned energetics company “EPSO-G”, was the Director of the Physical Barrier Program at the State Border with Belarus implemented by the Government of the Republic of Lithuania together with the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Lithuania, before this, he was employed as the Director General of UAB “Vilniaus vandenys”, lead the Environmental Protection Department of Vilnius Region under the Ministry of Environment. M. Švaikauskas also has experience in the private sector as the Head, who was responsible for the business risk management and business development.
Before the beginning of this year, the Head of the Road Administration was the company’s long-term employee Remigijus Lipkevičius, who, at the decision of the Board, remains to work at the company until the end of this year. He will be offered the position of the Councillor of the Director General of the Road Administration. Based on the good management practices, such decision was made by assessing the knowledge of R. Lipkevičius and his experience in the company, in order to ensure the continuity of projects implemented in the company, as well as fluent transfer of works to the new Head.
The joint stock company Lithuanian Road Administration manages 21 thousand kilometres of road having national importance. It has 293 employees.