Business Supervision Scoreboard: the Bank of Lithuania is leading with the Lithuanian Radio and Television Commission progressing most

One third of the national business supervisors perform their work in business supervision very well, but 4 out of 10 institutions are hardly progressing. The most progressive institution whose main activity is business supervision is the Bank of Lithuania, and the State Language Inspectorate has been identified as the least progressive.This was demonstrated by the Business Supervision Scoreboard, a survey carried out by the Ministry of the Economy and Innovation in 2020.

‘The recent assessment shows that the performance of the national supervisory authorities is improving; yet, it is not as fast as we would like to; we need a breakthrough. We hear from businesses that regulatory and administrative burdens need to be reduced. Easing of  business supervision rules, predictable activities of supervisory authorities are among our priorities, therefore we are determined to set about better regulation and business supervision reforms and have planned very specific measures to implement these reforms,’ said Minister of the Economy and Innovation Aušrinė Armonaitė.

The study assessed the progress of 47 business supervisors according to 9 criteria. Compared to the survey carried out in 2018, the overall progress of business supervisory bodies is seen with an average progress of 6.49 points (it was 5.03 points previously) on a ten-point scale.

The most progressive authorities whose main activity is business supervision is the Bank of Lithuania (9.51 points), the State Tax Inspectorate (9.50 points) and the Radio and the Lithuanian Television Commission (9.19 points).The least progressive authorities include the State Language Inspectorate (4.64 points), the State Medicines Control Agency (4.67 points) and the Department of Supervision of Social Services (4.91 points).

The Lithuanian Radio and Television Commission (+ 5.4 points) made the biggest progress compared to 2018; the lowest progress was made by the Lithuanian Transport Safety Administration (− 0.65 points).

Among the institutions for which business supervision is not their main activity, the Service of Technological Security of State Documents is most progressive (7.91 points); the public body State Production Certification Centre is least progressive (0,51 points).

The survey also revealed that almost all supervisory authorities continuously improve their staff qualifications and business advisory services; 36 out of 47 supervisors do so. However, 24 % of the authorities which record consultations by phone still do not assess the quality of their services despite that the continuous assessment of advisory services quality enables access to comprehensive and accurate information for businesses.

It was determined that 38 % of institutions actively consult businesses  during the first year of operation. A considerable number of the authorities still consider that the biggest assistance for business start-ups is not to check their activities in the first year. Anyway, the supervisory authorities should find ways of how to get in touch with business start-ups and offer assistance rather than wait for them to apply and seek help on their own.

Every year, the number of authorities that clarify which breaches of legislation can be regarded as minor is growing. Where a minor infringement is detected, the business is allowed to remedy it immediately or within a reasonable period of time with no fine being imposed.32 supervisory authorities apply this practice.

Better business regulation is among the key priorities. As part of the better regulation and business supervision reform, the Better Regulation Advisory Council has started working; in this connection, the objectives of supervisors and standards for reporting on results achieved will be set; the methodology for calculating the supervisory burden will be worked out; the review of regulatory and inspection burdens on business will be reviewed; supervision processes will be improved and standardised one-stop shops are planned to be introduced.  

More information about the results of the 2020 Business Supervision Scoreboard is available here.