Bank chief under fire

A parliamentary committee probing 17 years of bank-sector supervision may press for charges against Leszek Balcerowicz, the head of the central bank.

The panel is investigating why 70 percent of Polish bank assets were sold to foreign investors since the fall of communism in 1989.

The commission was appointed by the ruling coalition. It says Balcerowicz, the architect of Polish market reforms in the early 1990s, may have lied under oath about his involvement in economic think-tank CASE when testifying in another parliamentary probe last year.

"The commission may inform the prosecutors about this. We have to wait and see the facts," commission chairman Artur Zawisza, a Law and Justice deputy, told radio PiN. He said Balcerowicz may have breached ethical standards because CASE received grants from the central bank, along with other Polish economic institutes.

"I wrongly answered a question about my formal membership in the CASE council," Balcerowicz admitted, adding that the research institute was not in any way linked to the insurance probe. "My role as a founder or a member of the board of this research institute is not at odds with my work as central bank governor. During my work [at the bank] I never took part in any CASE council meetings or received pay from my role there," he added.

The investigation is the latest move in a push for tighter state control over industries and skepticism towards foreign capital. The government has already put all major privatizations on hold. Critics says the commission could be used to attack both Balcerowicz and his predecessor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, a senior opposition deputy and its candidate for Warsaw Mayor. (Reuters)