By eurotopics | 06.02.2012 | 21:38 ET in Europe

Opinion: Strange combination of alcohol and democracy in Lithuania

Several employees of a Lithuanian authority were caught partying wildly in a drunken state during working hours on Thursday. Lithuanian journalist reflects on the alcohol issues of his country’s bureaucrats in an article published on February 6.

Finns Willing to Pay More Tax on Alcohol and Tobacco. Image: Yle

"Parties are more important here than working" | Photo: Yle

Alcoholism is widespread among bureaucrats and is eating away at the state, the daily Vilniaus Diena writes: “One may well be surprised at the combination of drinking and democracy, but not in the case of bureaucrats with their butts stuck to their seats… Institutional alcohol consumption is a glaring problem here in Lithuania but for decades there have been efforts to hide the fact.

Parties are more important here than working, among other things because the work of most bureaucrats is basically superfluous. So we don’t even notice when they don’t do their work properly. Civil servants mostly don’t work for people directly but simply fulfil the tasks of other bureaucrats and institutions. Over the years a kind of bureaucratic conscience has developed. Nowadays the individual interests and rituals of the bureaucrats are more important than the state itself, which has wallowed for so long in democratic cynicism.”