Poland’s Supreme Audit Office (NIK), a state body tasked with overseeing government spending, has accused the justice ministry of mismanaging hundreds of millions of zloty from a special fund intended to support victims of crime. It has asked the Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA) to investigate.
At a press conference on Wednesday, NIK officials announced that an audit has indicated that the ministry turned a blind eye to conflicts of interest and mechanisms allowing corruption in distribution of the Justice Fund (Fundusz Sprawiedliwości).
Previously, opposition politicians and media reports have claimed that the fund was used for political purposes. often unrelated to its intended and statutory purposes.
“If these accusations are confirmed, he [Zbigniew Ziobro, the justice minister] will have to step down,” said Michał Seweryński, a senator from the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party. The justice ministry says it is waiting for publication of the full report and is not worried by “insinuations”.
Meanwhile, the justice minister wants to strip the auditor of immunity over charges of underdeclaring his assets.
The auditor's accusations against the justice minister could be brought to prosecutors, who are controlled by the minister, who is also the prosecutor general.
— Stanley Bill (@StanleySBill) August 4, 2021
The Justice Fund was created under a previous government in 2012 in order to provide support for victims of crime, rehabilitation of convicts, and crime prevention programmes. Its annual budget of around 400 million złoty (€88 million) is supervised by the justice ministry.
In its audit, which looked at funds spent since 2018, NIK found internal controls to be weak or entirely absent as well as arbitrariness and lack of transparency in decision making processes. There were also often “personal ties of some sort” with NGOs that received financial support, said Michał Jędrzejczyk of NIK.
“In relation to the scale of the discovered irregularities, NIK’s president [Marian Banaś] has appealed to the prime minister to take urgent action to fix the Justice Fund,” said Jędrzejczyk. Banaś has also “notified the CBA to demand actions to clarify the circumstances of discovered irregularities, among them mechanisms leading to corruption.”
In relation to the case, Banaś has also notified prosecutors that one of NIK’s own vice presidents, Tadeusz Dziuba, “failed to fulfil his duties” and sought to “to influence the content of the inspection results”, reports Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
25m zl from a fund for victims of crime was illegally transferred by the justice ministry to the Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA), finds the Supreme Audit Office (NIK). 'It is illegal and dangerous for the state,' they tell a parliamentary committee https://t.co/nkudxZCzAb
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) June 13, 2018
In a response to yesterday’s announcement, the justice ministry dismissed NIK’s accusations as part of an “internal power struggle…to protect the particular interests of the head of NIK and his son”.
Banaś has been in conflict with the government since soon after his appointment in 2019. He has been investigated over alleged financial misconduct, and last month Ziobro, in his other guise as prosecutor general, applied for Banaś’s immunity from prosecution to be withdrawn.
At the same time, Banaś’s son, Jakub, was detained and charged with financial misconduct. Both Banaś senior and junior claim that the accusations against them are politically motivated.
In its statement yesterday, the ministry claimed that the audit of the justice fund is “directly linked to the motion to waive the immunity of the head of NIK… as well as charges against his son”. It assured that the fund was being used in line with its statutory goals.
NIK’s announcement prompted criticism of the justice ministry from opposition leaders. “The [justice] fund became a private piggybank in the hands of Ziobro,” said Tomasz Grodzki, the speaker of the opposition-controlled Senate.
It was used as “an election fund for politicians from” the ruling camp, said Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, leader of the Polish People’s Party (PSL). The Left (Lewica) appealed to the prime minister for more information from the audit to be provided.
While few politicians from the ruling coalition have yet commented, Senator Seweryński of PiS said that the report could have serious consequences for the justice minister. “If these accusations are confirmed, [Ziobro] will have to step down,” he said, quoted by Onet.
📄Składamy wniosek o informację @MorawieckiM ws. wykorzystania środków z Funduszu Sprawiedliwości w latach 2018-2020.
Oczekujemy również informacji ze strony marszałek @elzbietawitek nt. losu wniosków prezesa @NIKgovPL o uzupełnienie składu Izby.https://t.co/XNj3RjmYze pic.twitter.com/SiIEjY1THT
— Lewica (@__Lewica) August 4, 2021
The ministry’s use of the justice fund has often attracted controversy in the past, with accusations that it is being used for political purposes.
Last year, 250,000 zloty from the fund was granted to the district of Tuchów to compensate for it losing European Union funding as a consequence of adopting a resolution declaring itself free from “LGBT ideology”. Ziobro handed over a cheque personally at a press conference.
An investigation by news website OKO.press found that a foundation with personal links to politicians from Ziobro’s party was granted 9 million zloty to support victims of crime despite having no experience in the field. The foundation then closed down shortly afterwards.
Previously, in 2018, NIK, which was then not led by Banaś, also found that, in its use of the justice fund, “the ministry does not provide adequate and efficient support for victims of crimes, instead spending money on the CBA and firefighters”.
Main image credit: Slawomir Kaminski / Agencja Gazeta
Agnieszka Wądołowska is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She has previously worked for Gazeta.pl and Tokfm.pl and contributed to Gazeta Wyborcza, Wysokie Obcasy, Duży Format, Midrasz and Kultura Liberalna
