Polish foreign ministry is plagued by corruption – foreign minister
Poland’s anti-corruption unit probes Poland’s public sector.
The Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski admitted that his ministry is plagued by corruption after it was revealed that an employee responsible for public tenders at the ministry was engaged in illegal practices, the Polish media reported on Nov. 20.
“Unfortunately yes, but as a result of work and close cooperation with the [Central Anti-Corruption Bureau] CBA, an employee was apprehended […] and she will be sacked immediately,” Sikorski told Polish Radio 3.
As part of a nationwide sweep, the CBA apprehended 18 public officials suspected of corruption within tenders for the procurement of telecoms equipment. Eight people were immediately charged with tender fixing. They could face up to three years in prison.
The media focused in on the foreign ministry employee, Monika F., due to her high profile position as chief of the foreign ministry’s public tenders at the director general’s office. However, other arrests include the deputy head of the National Statistical Office (GUS), an employee of the Central Statistical Computing Center (CoiS) and 15 representatives of IT companies.
The foreign minister said that he is not able to control everyone in an organization which employs 4,500 people. He stressed however, that he takes every instance of suspected corruption very seriously.
The foreign ministry will additionally probe all the tenders in which the employee who was sacked was involved. The increasingly refined methods used by swindlers to get money out of tenders make it difficult to catch the culprits, Sikorski commented, adding that the CBA is better equipped than the ministry itself to deal with such issues.
The foreign minister also commented on the shake-up within the Polish government announced by Prime Minister Donald Tusk late Tuesday.
Among others, Tusk announced that he has replaced Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski with Mateusz Szczurek, the chief economist at ING group. Tusk also replaced the minister for sport, education, regional development and transport, and administration and digitalization.
The new cabinet will hold its first meeting on Dec. 4.
