Board of the Seimas

The principle task of the Board of the Seimas shall be to settle organisational issues of the work of the Seimas and give advice to the Speaker of the Seimas, if he requests so. The Board of the Seimas shall consist of the Speaker of the Seimas, Deputy Speakers of the Seimas and the leader of the opposition of the Seimas. The composition of the Board of the Seimas shall be approved by the resolution of the Seimas.

Sittings of the Board of the Seimas shall be convened and presided over by the Speaker of the Seimas or by a Deputy Speaker of the Seimas. Other members of the Seimas, as well as permanent representatives of the President of the Republic and the Government may participate in the sittings of the Board of the Seimas as observers. Other individuals may also be invited to sittings of the Board of the Seimas. Board members, committees, commissions, party and parliamentary groups, and the head of the Office of the Seimas may submit issues for consideration to the Board. Draft documents of the Board of the Seimas, which are submitted for consideration shall be signed by their initiators and handed over to the Secretary General of the Seimas who shall prepare the agenda of a sitting, based thereon.

The Board of the Seimas shall:

1) distribute funds of the Seimas provided for in the State Budget, discuss and approve the estimates of expenditures of the Seimas;

2) following advice by committees, consider and send Seimas members on business trips to fulfil the tasks they get in writing from the Seimas, the Board, and committees; approve reports on such trips;

3) following advice by committees or party groups, consider and approve of Seimas members’ trips, which are not financed from the funds of the Seimas, during the session;

4) when necessary, consider draft work programmes of the Seimas session and draft sitting agendas for a week or a day, and submit conclusions to the Conference of Chairs or the Seimas;

5) call extraordinary sittings of the Seimas, set the time for such sittings;

6) approve a preliminary schedule of sittings of the Seimas session;

7) when necessary, establish to which institutions or persons the principal committee must refer a draft law for conclusions;

8) when necessary, make a decision to relieve the principal committee of the obligations set forth in Article 147 of the Statute of the Seimas;

9) when necessary, form working groups for drafting laws and carrying out the assignments of the Seimas or the Board of the Seimas;

10) assist in organising the joint work of committees on issues which fall within the competence of several committees;

11) appoint and dismiss the head of the Office of the Seimas, who is responsible and accountable to the Board;

12) approve the structure of the Office of the Seimas, draw up a list of the Office staff members , and set salaries thereof;

13) appoint and dismiss the heads and deputy heads of all the units of the Office of the Seimas by announcing competitions for the vacancies;

14) approve the regulations of the Office of the Seimas, the internal rules of the units thereof ; and

15) deal with other issues related to the organisation of the activities of the Seimas which are not ascribed to other bodies or officials of the Seimas by virtue of the Statute of the Seimas.

Decisions of the Board of the Seimas shall be adopted by open vote and simple majority of those in attendance, provided that a sitting of the Board of the Seimas is attended by at least half of the Board members. A tie vote shall be decided by the vote of the Speaker of the Seimas or, in his absence, of the Deputy Speaker of the Seimas who is presiding over the sitting.

The members of the Seimas shall be informed of the decisions of the Board of the Seimas through the committees and political groups within three working days from the day on which the decision was taken during session time or the first week of the next session.

Committees and political groups may appeal against the decisions of the Board of the Seimas to the Seimas, if the said decisions are considered to violate or restrict the rights of a Seimas member, a political group or a committee, or have been adopted exceeding the powers assigned to the Board. Such complaints shall be considered and resolved by the Seimas, upon hearing the conclusions of the Ethics and Procedures Commission.
Article 32 of the Statute of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania