Honest mistake?

   While the resignation of former Education Minister Miroslaw Handke is old news, the fallout from his departure threatens to loom large not only over the national budget in the months ahead, but also in the household budgets of hundreds of thousands of teachers who this year may not get the raise they counted on – the raise that is guaranteed by law.

   In mid-July, a zl. 800 million ($232 million) hole discovered in the education ministry's budget forced Handke to formulate a hasty resignation letter. One plus for the minister was that in the name of the national good, he did not dally in tendering his departure note once the "mistake" was discovered. In so doing, not only did Handke avert a potential government crisis, he spared the country a repeat performance of the drama caused by Stanislaw Alot's determination to hold on to his post at all costs. But recent news that more than double the amount may be missing to pay Poland's teachers shed new light on the minister's fast departure. Instead of zl. 800 million, it now turns out that upward of zl. 1.6 billion ($464 million) will have to appear from somewhere if teachers are to get the cash they've already earned. Maybe a knowing Handke got out while the getting was good?

   At the time he took over Handke's post, the new Education Minister Edmund Wittbrodt gurgled something to the effect that everybody has a right to make mistakes and he only hoped that he would avoid making them in the future. In light of the recent news this cute statement, which might have worked in a first-grade classroom, becomes an unbearably bitter pill to swallow for anybody who directs part of their income every month to the national coffers.

   This country's teachers are not a wealthy lot. But in their hands lies the fundamental resource of this country's future – its children. Not only the teachers, but tax-paying citizens deserve better calculations and better explanations from their elected officials. Schoolchildren across Poland would surely have flunked out for such lame exposes.

   But Handke should not bear the burden of his misdeeds and miscalculations alone. Handke's departure points to the fact that something is awry in the nation's over-bloated ministries. At present the new ministers of social security, health, internal affairs and now education are all struggling with financial and logistic disasters they inherited from their predecessors.

   Poland's taxpayers know how to calculate because they have to; dependents on the home front are counting on them to bring the hard-earned difference home. Moreover, when they go to the tax office they are bereft of their god-given right to make a mistake. If government officials at all levels continue to have problems with their calculations, the WBJ has a suggestion: Let any handful of middle-class business people in to have a go at the national books. At least the rest of us taxpayers would have a clear idea of what ground we're standing on.