SLD election campaign financed from stolen environmental protection fund

The former president of the Łódź Voivodship Environment Protection Fund (WFOŚ), Marek K., who is accused of causing the fund to lose zł.40 million, has said that the money was spent on financing the Democratic Left Alliance election campaign. In his statement made to the prosecutor, Marek K. declared that he gave the money to Andrzej Pęczak, a present SLD Sejm deputy and Waldemar Matusewicz, the Mayor of Piotrków Trybunalski, who was arrested for bribery a month ago. His testimony has been confirmed by a president of one of WFOŚ subsidiaries. SLD leader Krzysztof Janik has called on Andrzej Pęczak to “act like a man” and until the affair is sorted out to regard himself as suspended from the party. Perhaps what make the issue so scandalous is that Pęczak is also the Chairman of the Parliamentary State Inspection Committee. Meanwhile, the responsibility for running the investigation was taken away from prosecutor Agata Lubińska, whose work led to the arrest of Marek K. (Gazeta Wyborcza, July 3-4, p.1; Gazeta Wyborcza, pp.1, 4) E.B.