Investigations all around

The media sector's collaboration with the special services, the privatization of Polish steel manufacturer Polskie Huty Stali (PHS), the legal framework for National Investment Funds and the dealings of the National Bank of Poland (NBP) and all of its chiefs since 1989 - all these issues deserve investigation by special parliamentary commission, say members of the stabilization pact: Law and Justice (PiS), Self-defense and the League of Polish Families.

Harsh criticism

The number of investigations proposed is drawing criticism from opposing parties. "PiS is using investigative commissions as a weapon of mass destruction. The Kaczyński brothers have all instruments of power at their disposal - the courts, the prosecutors - but instead of making use of those they waste their time on political games," said Bogdan Lewandowski from Social Democracy of Poland, and a member of two investigative commissions that were established under the former government.

Civic Platform (PO) leader Donald Tusk accused the governing party of "a pathological need to control everything and everyone."

However, PiS leaders reply that the commissions are necessary to restore the state's credibility and make it strong enough to "restructure society after communism," in the words of PiS party president Jarosław Kaczyński.

Where it began

Two weeks ago Tusk proposed the creation of a special commission to investigate the legitimacy of an inquiry into Rzeczpospolita journalists ordered by President Lech Kaczyński when he was Justice Minister in Jerzy Buzek's cabinet. PiS then demanded that the commission's scope of interest be expanded to deal with the entire media sector's relationship with business and special services since the fall of communism.

But media representatives can, for the time being, breathe freely. The parliamentary coalition turned its attention last week to the nation's financial institutions, with special emphasis on central-bank chief Leszek Balcerowicz. The proposed inquiry will take on all of the NBP's activities in the years 1989-2006 and the privatization of banks such as Bank Śląski and Pekao SA.

Despite accusations from the president of the European Central Bank that the government would be infringing upon the NBP's independence, Sejm Speaker Marek Jurek (PiS), is determined to put the bank on trial. "We have to check why the banking system in Poland is less national in character than in other European states," he said.

Privatization nation

Apart from the banking tribunal, PiS would also like to take a closer look at the 1993 act on National Investment Funds and examine the privatization process run by the Democratic Left Alliance-Peasant's Party coalition government.

Politicians also want to investigate the state's sale of steelmaker PHS in 2003 to LNM - currently Mittal Steel - for zł.6 million. PHS was indebted to the tune of zł.5 billion, but just a year after the transaction was concluded, rising steel prices lifted PHS to a net profit of over zł.1 billion.