Anti-sleaze group pushes for higher standards

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) presented an analysis of fraud that showed almost two-thirds of companies in Poland perceive corruption to be widespread in their country.
By : Jeffrey Sparshott

   Poland’s anticorruption-working group last week pushed political parties to maintain high standards in public behavior and limit opportunities for corruption. But concerns linger that coalition partners in the new government may not permit the economic deregulation that limits opportunity for public dishonesty.

   The working group last week presented responses from Poland’s main political parties to questions on public corruption. The questions were sent to the parties prior to September’s elections, all of which responded except Self-Defense (SO), Civic Platform (PO), Alternatywa and the League of Polish Families (LPR).

   The working group plans to review annually individual party accomplishments in the battle against the abuse of public office for undue benefits.

   Antoni Kamiński, former head of Transparency International in Poland and a member of the working group, cautioned that the Democratic Left Alliance’s (SLD) coalition partners could harm anticorruption efforts because of their reluctance to limit government involvement into and deregulate the economy.

   “There is a consensus among experts that one of the most important steps is deregulation of the economy,” he said. The Labor Union (UP) and the Peasants Party (PSL) have spoken against such deregulation and tend to favor a strong government role in the economy, potentially making it more difficult to root out public corruption, he said.

   Poland consistently ranks poorly in international corruption surveys. At a Transparency International conference last week in Prague, consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) presented an analysis of fraud that showed almost two-thirds of companies in Poland perceive corruption to be widespread in their country. The European average is 23%.

   “However, despite this perception, only 18% of Polish companies report being victims of corruption themselves and only 26% expect corruption to get worse over the next five years, which could indicate confidence in their corporate governance regimes both now and in the future,” the company said.

   The report also indicated that 73% of Polish companies reported suffered from embezzlement and 20% have fallen victim to extortion.

   “Our survey shows that corruption and embezzlement are significant issues for Poland’s business community,” said Rick Helsby, head of PwC’s investigations practice in Europe. “While some businesses may prefer to think that the problem is not serious, our survey should be taken as a warning against complacency, and as an encouragement not to accept corruption as an inevitable part of doing business in Poland.”

   While the consulting firm’s survey dealt with private sector corruption, the working group in Poland focuses on public sector issues and seeks to limit the influence of the state and political parties on the economy, reduce public tolerance for corruption, improve the quality of public services and make it easier to detect corruption.

   The anticorruption working group was established in March 2000 at the government’s initiative.