Tusk: 100 billion of “suspected illegal spending” under former PiS government identified so far

Prime Minister Donald Tusk says that auditors examining public spending in Poland between 2016 and 2023 under the former Law and Justice (PiS) government have so far identified 100 billion zloty (€23 billion) of expenditure that raises “suspicion it was spent illegally”.

Tusk accused PiS of creating a “closed system”, using state money “for its own political and financial benefit”. This allegedly included financing election campaigns, funding foundations linked to its politicians, and supporting friendly media outlets.

The prime minister pledged that his government would seek to “catch all those who abused power and robbed the Polish state”. He noted that 62 former officials have already been charged in relation to alleged misspending, with a further 149 notifications of potential crimes submitted to prosecutors.

“This is the first time in the history of Poland that government officials have been held accountable so quickly and effectively,” he claimed.

Speaking at a specially arranged press conference, Tusk noted that 200 auditors are working on investigations into spending under the PiS government, which was in office until December 2023.

Among the patterns identified is that “PiS ministers and deputy ministers who were candidates in the European elections concentrated state funds in their districts”.

In one case, such abuses “happened right under [PiS Prime Minister] Mateusz Morawiecki’s nose”, said Tusk, who claimed that Krzysztof Szczucki, who was then head of the government’s legislative centre, “employed six people who did not perform any work [but] were involved in his election campaign”.

When Tusk previously made the same claim in May, Szczucki denied it and accused the prime minister of spreading “false accusations”.

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Tusk also announced that today, the ministers of justice, the interior, and finance are signing an agreement on “coordinating activities…aimed at disclosing, securing and recovering property due to the state treasury”. They will also work on measures to prevent future abuses.

When Tusk’s coalition government came to power in December, one of its central promises was to hold to account the former PiS administration for its various alleged abuses.

The most prominent such investigation so far has related to the Justice Fund, which is supposed to be used by the justice ministry to counteract crime and support victims but was allegedly used as a political slush fund under PiS, including to support election campaigns.

So far, the government’s majority in parliament has stripped two former deputy justice ministers of immunity to face charges in relation to misuse of the Justice Fund.

However, PiS denies the allegations against it, claiming that it is being targeted in a political witchhunt by the new government.

In response to Tusk’s claims today, Morawiecki accused the prime minister of spreading “lies” and said that his real aim is “to eliminate the largest opposition party in Poland”.

Main image credit: KPRM/Flickr (under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.