PO bill may finally expose the messy truth behind public finances

Openness, transparency and better management of public funds are the main objectives of the new draft Public Finance bill that was presented on Friday to Parliament by the Civic Platform (PO). According to PO, changing the regulations can help save the budget millions of zloty. However, the authors of the document would not give any specific figures. "We submit this draft being convinced that the need to make public finance more healthy is a must," said PO Deputy Zyta Gilowska. The bill proposes unified spending reports of the public sector, an obligation to publish information concerning spending of public money by the government and local authorities. PO members would also disband all local and voivodship special purpose funds and demand authorization for any spending in the name of the Treasury or local government. "We hope that revealing the truth about public finance will show clearly how much the state earns and how much it spends," explained Gilowska. (Rzeczpospolita, March 15-16, p. B2; Parkiet, March 15-17, p. 5) J.K. Leading figures send open letter to President urging change of electoral system More than 70 top intelligentsia figures concerned with the future of the country publicly addressed the President to change the electoral system from the present one based on proportional representation to a first past the post one. In a letter, written in a dramatic tone, signed by Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, Jan Englert, Ryszard Kaczorowski, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, and many others, the authors expressed their fear about the recent government crisis in the face of EU entry, increasing corruption at the highest levels, and putting private and party interests above the national good. "Under the current regulations it is party officials who assign their chosen ones to various positions...the possibilities and the power should be handed over to the citizens. The best system, now used by the greatest democracies in the world, are those based on one constituency - one representative," read the letter. (Reczpospolita, March 15-16, p.1) J.K.