They shoot horses don’t they?

   Bartering over human remains is a grisly trade. Scottish grave robbers Burke and Hare did it in the early 19th century and Moldovan healthcare workers were doing it last April. The reason for the grim enterprise is, of course, money – or rather the lack of it.

   The Moldova example is a case in point. In the country’s capital, Chisinau, doctors are paid about $30 a month and the average monthly wage in the country is $20. Few people can afford to eat meat and when a cheap alternative appeared in a market in Chisinau people snapped it up. It was later found to be human breasts, legs and arms supplied by penniless workers at the local state-run hospital.

   This is corruption on a grotesque scale, but it’s nonetheless relevant to other countries around the region that have poorly paid public servants who have no alternative but to find extra sources of income. Belt tightening is becoming a regional trend and nowhere more so than in Poland. With the state deficit for 2002 estimated to be as high as an unsustainable 11%, austerity measures will have to be rigorously enforced if the country is to climb out of the hole it finds itself in.

   One measure former Finance Minister Jarosław Bauc recently proposed was a freeze on all wage rises for public servants: judges, police officers, teachers and doctors. If a two-year freeze does go ahead, any talk of stamping out current levels of corruption can be kissed goodbye. Bluntly speaking, how are these people supposed to make ends meet unless they can do some business on the side?

   This week’s cover story uncovers a shocking tale of trading in human remains in Poland’s hospitals. Doctors, middlemen and funeral services are all accused of haggling for the right to buy and bury the recently deceased. While the trade is nowhere near as grisly as the events in Moldova and no one doubts the integrity of most of Poland’s public servants, the fact remains that it’s happening and hospital workers all the way up to the Health Ministry are reportedly aware of it.

   Any future government knows it will have a huge task ahead if it’s going to get the budget back on course. Unpopular measures such as wage freezes seem inevitable. But politicians should also talk some faith back into the market. Privatization issues have been allowed to lag, with the Democratic Left Alliance – probable winners of this month’s elections – still not making clear where it stands on the sell-off of state assets. Meanwhile, the last gasp of the current Solidarity Election Action government is to jettison the bearer of bad tidings and confirm everyone’s fears, Poles and foreign investors alike, that Poland’s political system is not mature enough to cope with running a modern European state.

   It often seems as if the nation has been hijacked by a bunch of dodgy horse traders happy to shoot the nags before they’re allowed to reach the final furlong.