Kamela-Sowinska sacks lottery chief
By : Magdalena Wierzchowska
Wladyslaw Jamrozy, the controversial president of state lottery Totalizator Sportowy, was dismissed last Wednesday by Treasury Minister Aldona Kamela-Sowinska.
"The reasons weren't given to me," Jamrozy told the Business Journal. "I acted in the interests of the company. We took decisions together and respected the law."
Until Wednesday, only Totalizator's management board had been able to legally dismiss Jamrozy, who was criticized for mishandling a tender to pick an online systems operator for the lottery.
But on Tuesday, the government issued a regulation eliminating Totalizator from a list of companies deemed strategic to the state, which enabled Kamela-Sowinska, as the only shareholder, to sack Jamrozy. When Kamela-Sowinska met Jamrozy on Wednesday, she showed him the regulation in Dziennik Ustaw (the government magazine for the public disclosure of new laws), which had been printed overnight.
Although ministry spokeswoman Aleksandra Gieros denied Jamrozy's dismissal was connected with the $100-million tender to operate Totalizator's online system, police seized tender documents from Jamrozy's office Wednesday.
Totalizator has been in the headlines in recent months as its operating system tender entered the final stages. The U.S.' G-Tech, which was awarded the bid at the end of February, beat American AWI, the favorite to win the tender last year. After the winner was announced, the Lodz public prosecutor's office launched a corruption investigation in response to information received from Finance Minister Jaroslaw Bauc. The Supreme Board of Inspection (NIK), at Jamrozy's request a few weeks ago, also launched an investigation.
