Transparency approaches, changing the role of supervisory institutions in Lithuania

ENLithuania is a country of three million people located at the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. It has been a member of the European Union and NATO since 2004. The main sectors of the economy are agriculture, food production, manufacturing and provision of services and the main trade partners are European Union countries - Latvia, Poland, Germany - and also Russia. There are 60 municipalities in the country, but most of the business supervision functions are centralised and delivered by central government from the capital or through local branches. In recent years the number of local branches of central institutions has decreased, as budget pressures increase and more services are handled online. There are 56 business supervisory institutions in Lithuania. The term 'business supervision’ includes all the activities that a regulatory agency - or 'business supervisory institution'1 - uses to achieve its goals. The term was introduced in Lithuania to emphasise that a physical inspection is not the only tool. The term 'business supervision' has a similar meaning to 'regulatory delivery', except that it emphasises the application to businesses, rather than to all duty-holders. The number of business supervisory institutions is high, as it includes all governmental agencies that have any powers to inspect businesses, even those with minimal impact on the economy. [...].