Corruption crackdown
The Central Anti-corruption Bureau (CBA), one of the pet projects of the ruling Law and Justice, was officially set up on July 24. The office will be responsible for fighting corruption and irregularities in privatization and public-procurement procedures.
The CBA has similar powers to those of the police and intelligence services and its officers are licensed to inspect citizens, wiretap buildings, use guns, control private companies and even gather information on sexual orientation or religious beliefs.
The Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) claims some of these regulations violate the Constitution and has sent the bill to the Constitutional Tribunal. Self-defense is also on the offensive, and despite the fact that its members voted in favor of the bill, the party has announced that it has prepared several amendments. In May, the CBA bill was passed by the Sejm, with only deputies from SLD voting against it.
Julia Pitera, a Civic Platform (PO) deputy, points out that the work of existing institutions should be improved, while the CBA should play more of a coordinating role. Nevertheless, PO supported the creation of the CBA. "We hope this institution will work, but we are skeptical about it," she said.
One of the chief roles of the CBA will be to check wealth declarations, and the government wants to lenghten the list of those obliged to submit such reports. Under a new draft bill to be debated by the Sejm this month, which was written by Minister Przemysław Gosiewski, a whole army of people will be required to declare what they and their spouse possess and where it comes from. This will concern, among others, judges, prosecutors, members of local governments, ambassadors, managers in the National Health Fund (NFZ), the heads of ZUS, deputies to the European Parliament, directors of appelate and district courts, directors of state banks and companies, managers in the National Bank of Poland and one-man state Treasury companies.
"We want to have an effective tool to fight corruption; open life concerning the financial sphere is very important for us to know who acquired wealth in an honest way, and who through corruption," Gosiewski told WBJ. "We are not against politicians being wealthy people, but we want their income to come from legal sources," he stressed.
"It's a naive belief that someone who steals public property will show it in a wealth declaration," comments PO's Pitera.
The CBA has secured zł.60 million from the state budget. The insitution is headed by PiS politician Mariusz Kamiński and is currently seeking employees.
