Anti-corruption overkill?

The Senate has rejected the Polish Confederation of Private Employers (PKPP) Lewiatan's proposed changes to the draft bill on the Central Anti-corruption Bureau (CBA).

According to PKPP Lewiatan and the Confederation of Polish Employers (KPP), the regulations set out in the bill are ambiguous and allow for numerous interpretations. "The law makes huge room for arbitrariness [by government officials]," said Wojciech Morawski, deputy president of PKPP Lewiatan. "The CBA draft strengthens the reasons for corruption instead of removing them."

According to the bill, the new institution will not only fight corruption, but will also be empowered to investigate any possible activities that could cost the State Treasury  the equivalent of two-hundred times the minimum wage. Interestingly, that would equal around zł.170,000, while in Britain, a similar law calls for an investigation only if the practices could cost the state Ł1 (zł.5.76) million.

A yearly plan would be drawn up for the inspections, but officials would also be allowed to begin one simply by showing an ID card. Then the warrant will have to be provided within three days, while the inspectors will have full access to all company documents and facilities. An inspection could last three months, but that could be extended to nine, compared to the maximum eight-week limit called for in the Economic Freedom Law adopted in 2004.

Lewiatan had asked for shortening the time of the inspections, synchronizing the bill with the Economic Freedom Law, withdrawing the idea of allowing an inspection on the basis of an ID card, and limiting the access to the area under investigation, as well as clearly specified reasons for it. If the bill becomes law without the changes, the group plans to send it to the Constitutional Tribunal. The Senate will now vote on the bill on June 7.

"It is unjustifiable that the lawmaker, instead of using the existing institutions and instruments, is multiplying the possibilities to interfere in privacy and giving identical entitlements to new institutions," says Henryka Bochniarz, PKPP Lewiatan's president.