ANNUAL REPORT OF 2019 ON THE ACTIVITIES OF THE SEIMAS OMBUDSMEN’S OFFICE OF THE REPUBLIC OF LITHUANIA request, its registration, determination of the subject matter of the request and the preparation of the answer to the person. The legislator obligates public administration entities to respond to requests of individuals according to their content within the time limit set by legal acts. Lack of clarity of legal regulation. When examining complaints the Seimas Ombudsmen often draw attention of responsible institutions and agencies to the fact that activities of entities of public administration must be clear and unambiguous. The reason for complaints lodged with the Seimas Ombudsmen regarding potentially inappropriate activities of an institution or agency often is the lack of clarity of legal regulation, which in individual cases creates preconditions for violations of the rights and legitimate interests of individuals, therefore the Seimas Ombudsmen emphasize in their statements the need to ensure clarity and coherence of legal regulation. In 2019, the Seimas Ombudsman received the applicant’s complaint concerning the acts (omission) of the officials of the State Control Commission for Prices and Energy, who delayed the adoption of the decision on the application of the method of distributing heat according to the readings of one introductory heat meter to the complainant’s multi-apartment building and kept applying new requirements to the coordination of the selected method. Investigations initiated by the Seimas Ombudsman regarding delays in the improvement of legal regulation. When, during investigation of received complaints, the Seimas Ombudsmen identify weaknesses in legal regulation, they submit recommendations to the competent institutions to eliminate such weaknesses. Being aware that the drafting of legal acts is a complex and often lengthy process, the Seimas Ombudsmen carefully assess whether the recommendations submitted to the institutions regarding the improvement of legal regulation have been implemented. However, particularly in cases where weaknesses in legal EVERYONE COUNTS 27 regulation are identified in areas for which different ministries are responsible, when the area concerned is regulated by a number of different legal acts, there are delays in the activities of the authorities in charge, which raise suspicions of potentially unjustified failure to act. In observance of Article 73 of the Constitution and in compliance with Article 3 and Article 13(3) of the Law on the Seimas Ombudsmen, the Seimas Ombudsmen may, in such cases, initiate an investigation on their own initiative. In 2019, the Seimas Ombudsman conducted an own-initiative investigation into the acts (omissions) of the officials of the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport and opened (later terminated) the investigation into the failure of the officials of the Ministry of Environment to act on the activities of managers of shared objects of multi-apartment buildings, improvement of legal regulation of control and supervision of these activities. Poor control of economic activities, delays in decision-making (noise). Applicants complain to the Seimas Ombudsmen that responsible institutions fail to address the issues relevant to them. When examining received complaints, the Seimas Ombudsmen observe that problems raised by complainants are largely unsolved for a long time due to the delays by competent authorities to take the necessary decisions or measures to resolve the specified problems or due to inefficiency of the measures taken because of the lack of integrity and intolerance of the officials to violations. There were cases when, instead of addressing the issues, i.e. eliminating an infringement recorded by another institution, the responsible officials look for different ways to avoid addressing the issues falling within their competence, or are negligent in carrying out control actions. The consequences of this are that offenders do not take measures to stop harmful activities, violations continue and those affected by the violation suffer inconvenience and the worsening of their life quality. The Seimas Ombudsmen note that such situations are common in (not) addressing noise problems.