No more farmusing
Last week, the Polish language was enriched by a few new words: the verb "to farmus," meaning to seek corrupt benefits from lucrative defense contracts; as well as the noun "a farmus," as in a covert escape from justice foiled by elite commando troops of the Polish military forces (as in "he did a farmus"). All this as a result of the tireless efforts of journalists who exposed corruption at the highest levels of government, ending with the guilty man fleeing the country, only to be snatched from the high seas by elite airborne troops and brought back home to justice, while his immediate boss was forced to resign in shame. At the center of the drama was one Zbigniew Farmus, assistant to Deputy Defense Minister Romuald Szeremietiew, and who had been exposed in the respected Rzeczpospolita daily as having asked for bribes from foreign defense manufacturers.
There had been rumors of the impending article for at least a week, and the only other surprise was that it had taken so long for it to appear in the first place. For over two years, both MPs and Defense Ministry officials, when asked about the minister's eminence grise, had rolled their eyes heavenward and suggestively rubbed their fingers together. But Poland is the sort of country where the political culture (or rather lack of it) is such that even a blatant reputation of corruption is insufficient to effect a dismissal. What is required is hard evidence, and in such cases it is always difficult to come by. Moreover, the country's strict press laws make it difficult for reporters to name names unless their sources are prepared to repeat the allegations in a court of law. In this case, the key source who described how Farmus had sought to extort cash in return for military contracts is apparently prepared to do so.
Looking back over the 10 years of democratic government, it is difficult to recall a more spectacular example of a corruption scandal, and in many ways it is testament to the current government that it reacted as quickly as it did to the press allegations in arresting Farmus and dismissing Szeremietiew. Szeremietiew's position had seemed to be one of the strongest in the government. He had been appointed deputy defense minister in 1997, under then Defense Ministry head Janusz Onyszkiewicz, and immediately took over responsibility for defense procurement and the defense industry. His relations with Onyszkiewicz were never good, and Szeremietiew initially depended on the protection of both Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek and Solidarity Election Action (AWS) leader Marian Krzaklewski. Together with Farmus, both men were on the Political Council of the AWS Social Movement (RS AWS), and many suspect that the pair had a tacit green light to generate funds for the nascent political party.
Following Onyszkiewicz's resignation last year after the withdrawal of the Freedom Union (UW) from government, Buzek appointed the then head of the parliamentary defense committee, Bronislaw Komorowski, as MOD boss. Komorowski did in fact seek Szeremietiew's removal last year, but had been blocked by Buzek and Krzaklewski, a fact that has led to several opposition politicians asking questions as to when the prime minister was first alerted about Szeremietiew, and why he did nothing about it.
The implications of the affair are still unraveling, especially as military counterintelligence officers are combing through Szeremietiew and Farmus' offices seeking evidence of further wrongdoing. Many expect Farmus, embittered by his downfall, to expose all about his activities in return for lighter sentencing. In the short term, of course, the affair cannot but damage Buzek and the AWS still further, perhaps permanently pushing them below the electoral threshold for entering the next parliament. It will also give the leading Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) politicians the opportunity to present themselves as anti-corruption champions even though their previous administration was not free of such scandals either.
In the longer term however, the determination of Komorowski to clear house in MOD, even at the expense of the political career of an AWS politician, will raise the barrier of standards in military procurements in the future. Politicians in the next SLD-controlled administration, as well as government officials, will be especially sensitive to attempts to swing contracts through bribes, in the knowledge that they too could become accused of having "done a Farmus" by independent journalists. That will be good for transparency, and may well be the most important legacy by which Komorowski will be remembered.
Marek Matraszek is the Warsaw director of CEC Government Relations. He can be e-mailed at director@cec.com.pl
