Trust and satisfaction with public services

Trust in public institutions and satisfaction with public services are important yardsticks of the quality of public governance. They reflect people’s perceptions of government competence in designing and delivering policies and services, and expectations on the behaviour of public institutions and their representatives. Although high trust in public institutions is not a necessary outcome of democratic governance, trust and satisfaction with public services facilitate effective governance, as they correlate with high rates of compliance with policies, participation in public life and social cohesion.

A majority of Lithuanians (51%) report being satisfied with the health care system. However, only 37% are satisfied with the judiciary and education systems, compared to 56% and 67%, respectively, on average across the OECD countries.

 Achieving results with good governance practices 

In an age of multiple crises, governments need to adopt more advanced practices to build trust in public institutions and enhance democratic resilience. Actions include building on democratic strengths, such as enhancing citizen and stakeholder engagement in decision making; reinforcing key competences to handle crises, such as budgeting and public financial management processes to address the green and digital transitions; and protecting against threats to democratic values, such as maintaining effective public integrity rules and promoting ethical use of artificial intelligence.

Citizen and stakeholder engagement in decision making helps to improve the design, implementation, and public acceptance of policies, infrastructure and services. The OECD Infrastructure Governance Index (IGI) on stakeholder participation provides an overview of countries’ performance in developing national guidance for stakeholder engagement, promoting their effective participation, and ensuring stakeholder oversight over infrastructure projects.

With a score of 0.60, on a 0-1 scale, Lithuania performs above the average across OECD countries (0.52) on the IGI on stakeholder participation. The country performs above average on each of the three dimensions of the index. Its strongest performance is on stakeholder oversight, with a score of 0.24 out of a maximum value of 0.33.

Budgeting management processes, such as green budgeting, can help address the climate crisis and achieve environmental goals. While there has been a rapid increase in the number of countries implementing green budgeting mechanisms, these could be used more effectively. Green budgeting mechanisms include institutional arrangements to assess the environmental impacts of budgetary and fiscal policies, methods for evaluating their consistency, mechanisms to enhance transparency and accountability, and an enabling budgetary governance framework.

Lithuania performs above the average across OECD countries in the application of green budgeting with a score of 0.55, on a 0-1 scale. Lithuania's strongest performance is on the dimension enabling environment, where the country achieves a score of 0.19 out of a maximum value of 0.25. There is room for improvement on methods and tools, and accountability and transparency (scores are 0.09).

Strengthening information integrity has become particularly complex in the digital age. While digitalisation and artificial intelligence (AI) provide enormous opportunities, including in expanding and protecting the exercise of some democratic rights and freedoms, their use also brings challenges for governments such as ensuring that they enhance people’s willingness and ability to engage constructively in democratic life and that they benefit society as a whole.

Lithuania, together with Latvia, are the only countries among the 30 surveyed OECD countries which do not have any instruments in place to ensure ethical use of AI.

 What resources public institutions use and how they are managed 

After stark deterioration due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which required emergency measures and direct support mechanisms to business and people, public finances show positive signs, but the recovery remains fragile. The fiscal balance is the difference between a government’s revenues and its expenditures in a year. When the government spends more than it collects, it has a fiscal deficit. When it spends less, it has a fiscal surplus.

Lithuania’s fiscal deficit was reduced from -1.2% of GDP in 2021 to -0.6% in 2022. Its fiscal deficit is considerably lower than the average across OECD countries (-7.5% in 2021) in 2022. In addition, Lithuania also has a low public debt as share of GDP. The debt level diminished from 50.6% in 2021 to 38.1% in 2022, which is significantly lower than the OECD average of 120.8% in 2021.

Public investment can enhance productivity and economic growth and help implement long-term policies, such as green energy infrastructure to support action on climate change. In turn, governments procure large amounts of goods, services and works to help them implement policies and deliver public services.

Lithuania spent 9.3% and 9.4% of GDP on procurement in 2019 and 2021, respectively. This is slightly lower than the OECD average (12.9% in 2021). Lithuania invested the equivalent of 3.2% of GDP in 2021, which is comparable with 3.4% on average across OECD countries. Only minor changes occurred in 2022 (3.0%).

The size of public employment varies significantly among OECD countries, ranging from around 10% to just above 30%. 

Lithuania has a large share of public employment (22.5% of total employment). The average across OECD countries in 2021 was 18.6%.

Governments use different mechanisms to harness and develop the capacity of their workforce. For example, internal mobility in public administrations helps to pool human resources across government and attract and retain civil servants.

In Lithuania, internal mobility is possible but not encouraged for most civil servants, as in a majority of OECD countries. However, internal mobility is not possible for senior-level civil servants.

Equal representation of women and men in the public sector is a key indicator of progress towards gender equality, diversity and better representation. In 2020, a majority of employees in the public sector in OECD countries were women (58.9%), with large differences among countries. However, women are often under-represented in managerial positions.

In Lithuania, 52.2% of people in senior management positions are women, which is among the highest rates across the OECD-EU countries, where the average is 40.8%. Lithuania is also above the OECD average for women in ministerial positions, 43% compared with 36%, albeit below gender parity.

Young people are under-represented in public and political life across the OECD, with the risk that their voice and interests are not sufficiently taken in consideration in policymaking.

In Lithuania, the average age of cabinet members – 48 years – is among the lowest in the OECD. This is 5 years younger than the OECD average (53 years) and the third lowest of all OECD countries.