Bribery and corruption 'fact of life' in Poland?

Not always. Germany, Finland, Canada all have a bureaucracy and very low levels of corruption.


Proves my point, since it (as a collection of organisations) is far less corrupt than its less developed member states.

Some guys did serious time for FOZZ (and have now been released) but plenty got away with it.

Im more bothered about corruption today than things that happened 25 years ago. The weakening of the KNF and NBP will have serious consequences for Poland's economic credibility (just as FOZZ did at the time)

You are referring to the street-level, 20-buck bribes after you get pulled over.
The giga corruption is when a party destroys the country for power and personal benefits. And it's legal. Welcome to the land of law and order, the USA. Not that the EU and the EU countries are any better.

And would one of them have been Walęsa? It happened on his watch - can't believe he didn't know anything about it....

As President at the time he must bear some responsibility.

He probably knows as much about state bond valuations as your average electrician does.

By your logic Kaczynski is responsible for the bribes in the KNF. Maybe that is far-fetched, but as for Morawiecki - and experienced banker and formerly head of a large bank he must've had a fair idea of what kind of people he was appointing to crucial oversight bodies. .

It's all part of the same vicious circle and a cultural failing whether it's a policeman who pulls you over for a bribe or a political operator who sorts out a contract for a huge bribe.

No argument their except that it's a lot easier to throw a cop under the bus than Hillary.

I'm not really up on the KNF.... Do you have any links (in English)?

ft.com/content/949bf91e-e6a0-11e8-8a85-04b8afea6ea3

You can start with the ft or the Economist. However i get the impression anything written by an experienced financial journalist would fall in to your definition of MSM blah blah

In Polish the best coverage of this is would be Puls Biznesu or Rz.

Even the Government media reported on it - thenews.pl/1/12/Artykul/391892,Polish-financial-regulator-quits-but-denies-corruption

That is very true, it's easier to catch someone who can't afford a good legal defence or doesn't have any sort of immunity.

Just curious. Why did you exclude "Hillary" from the quote?

It reminds me of the scene in 1984 when it was John Hurt`s job as the propaganda editor for Big Brother.

He probably didn't mean to do it, old habits come naturally:)

youtu.be/oe9I0QhV08w

I thought that this was some old PiS scandal that has just come to light, but it seems to have nothing at all to do with the government.

There is no indication as to when this 'asking for a bribe' took place or in fact if any corruption actually took place.

So you are quite happy about plenty of people getting away with it because it was a long time ago...

No - i think that people should be held accountable for their crimes. However pursuing complicated cases is costly and it's difficult to obtain convictions when many witnesses are dead or senile.

As for the KNF case - it took place in November, the govt is heavily implicated being as they looked at changing the law specifically for Getin. The NBP case last week was straightforward snouts in the trough. Glapinski is probably glad that the stabbing took the spotlight away. I dont think Kaczynski can even fire the guy as he has a 6 year term.

Both these and FOZZ have the same effect- undermining confidence by showing that there is weak control over the actions of senior govt finance officials

Merged:

Old but gold

About the corruption in the finance ministry before 2005

focus.pl/artykul/niebezpieczne-zwiazki-dygnitarzy-resortu-finansow?page=2

there are corrupt judges in the background

Yaawn.
Gumi, nobody says there are no corrupt judges at all. Of course, it is impossible that all are angels. But PiS is primarily trying to remove those independent ones who can`t be controlled by politicians. The ones who can are supported and promoted by PIS. That is the real problem - they want to have their own judges in order to deal with their political opponents - the current actions by Justice Ministry prove it sufficiently.

We talked extensively about it in another thread, so please, stop playing stupid now and pretending you forgot all we said there.

https://polishforums.com/news/dodgy-prl-holdover-judiciary-finally-reformed-81678/11/

Rightist PiS rulers` series of corruption scandals

Part one

PiS Health Minister Szumowski`s ties with suspicious deals and business people.

Characters:
Łukasz Szumowski, his brother, wife, ski instructor, arms dealer, businessmen associated with PiS

Story
According to media information and parliamentary inspections, the scandal of Minister of Health Łukasz Szumowski consists of several scandals smelling of corruption:

Useless masks from a ski instructor
The minister's ski instructor received government contracts worth about PLN 5 million for the sale of filtering and surgical masks. As it turned out, he delivered goods unfit for use, with a false certificate. The CBA is dealing with this fraud.

100 million PLN for spectrum respirators for an arms dealer
The Szumowski Department buys over 1,200 ventilators from an arms dealer company that has never operated on the medical market before. In June, only 50 devices were delivered to Poland, although according to the contract, deliveries should be made from April. In addition, it turned out that the ministry paid PLN 100 million for the spectrum respirators.

Buying tests at inflated prices from a company associated with PiS
The Ministry paid nearly PLN 47 million for 365 thousand. tests for coronavirus from a Poznań company associated with PiS. One test cost as much as PLN 128. According to media reports, the tests came from Turkey, where the company from Poznań bought them for about PLN 34 each.

Overpaid helmets from the ski instructor's wife
The wife of a ski instructor earned tens of thousands of zlotys on the sale of visors to the reserve base of the ministry. It's about equipment that the ministry could buy straight from warehouses, and not use intermediaries.

Donation for my brother
Media reports also show that Łukasz Szumowski, being in an obvious conflict of interests, accepted the position of deputy minister at the Ministry of Science and Higher Education despite family ties with companies that received and still applied for subsidies from the National Center for Research and Development subordinate to the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. It is even about PLN 200 million. In June 2017, just after he became deputy minister of science, Łukasz Szumowski transferred his shares in medical companies to his wife, Anna, with whom he has a property separation. Thanks to this, he did not have to include this information in publicly available asset declarations.

Source:
100aferpis.pl/

Not part but case.

Case 2.

SKOK credit union bank scandal

Characters:
PiS senator

According to the media, Grzegorz Bierecki, PiS senator, co-founded credit unions that were not supervised by the KNF - The Financial Supervision Authority. He did it, according to journalists, thanks to the votes and efforts of PiS politicians. Then, according to reports, he opened SKOK Holding in Luxembourg, where over time the ownership of companies providing various services to SKOKs was transferred. According to journalists, Bierecki's asset declarations show that in a good year his remuneration, coming from various entities related to the SKOK system, exceeded even PLN 5 million. According to journalists, politicians and people associated with PiS and SKOK took loans in them, which they did not pay back. In 2013, SKOKs were supervised by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority. The media report that since 2014, 13 credit unions of credit unions have collapsed, with approx. 250,000 aggrieved clients. The Bank Guarantee Fund paid the depositors of 13 bankrupt credit unions nearly PLN 4,336 million.

if SKOK was the problem of PiS, PO would have long ago capitalized on it, since the issue happened when PO was in power - the biggest scam was in SKOK Wołomin which was established by ex-communist military intelligence functionaires

also SKOK's were not under the supervision of KNF before 2013 because they were not obligated to pay into the Bankowy Fundusz Gwarancyjny and people's savings in SKOK's were not protected by the BFG - I don't know much about it but it is entirely possible that including SKOK's in the BFG (and demanding them to pay into the Fund) meant the downfall of them - to those uninitiated PO/PSL ruled in 2013

Pretty well normal for them.


And the sad thing is that PiS' behaviour reduces confidence in Credit Unions which are an excellent concept.

@gumishu

here's a nice little article on SKOKs that mentions how many of them got in trouble and singles out the SKOK Wołomin case - of course in Polish - but pawian claims to know Polish

bankier.pl/wiadomosc/SKOK-i-chca-ochrony-Bankowego-Funduszu-Gwarancyjnego-4010141.html

Case 3:

Fraud money used to finance PiS candidates` campaign to Euro Parliament. PiS prosecutors do their best to cover up the scandal.
PLN 1.2 million. This amount was to be transferred from January 2015 from the Lower Silesian branch of the Polish Red Cross. At that time, it was led by PiS members. The problem is that - as reported by "Gazeta Wyborcza" - prosecutors of the "good change" forbid informing about the investigation on the money from the Polish Red Cross that was supposed to be spent on election campaigns.

Your obsession!

an example of PO scandal: auto.dziennik.pl/drogi/artykuly/412211,miliardowy-przekret-na-ekranach-przy-autostradach-gdzie-sa-dokumenty.html

PO scandals cost us real money: like billions PLN

wpolityce.pl/polityka/142072-ekrany-dzwiekoszczelne-w-szczerym-polu-na-walke-z-halasem-przy-drogach-wydano-czesto-bez-sensu-prawie-miliard-zlotych

this is an article on the Wrocław PCK scandal - it is clear from the article that the leadership of PiS intended to throw the incrimanted politician out of the party - you know PiS is not a mind reading telepathic entity and black sheep happen here and there

gazetawroclawska.pl/wroclaw-radny-pis-w-areszcie-wyprowadzal-pieniadze-z-pck/ar/12969673

ok I found another article (from 3 years later) that says more PiS politicians were involved in fraud within and around PCK - newsweek.pl/polska/spoleczenstwo/afera-pck-z-udzialem-politykow-pis-sledztwo-ujawnia-nowe-fakty/xw0cccf

some of the information in the article is a typical manipulation but some facts are undeniable
the case went to courts, pawian, though - so it's a bullcrap that 'good change' prosecutors strangled the case

Stop lying. Show us court sentences and tell the names of convicted criminals. :):)

Billions have been wasted by PiS - we are going to learn about them after the next elections.


Coz it went public and they weren`t able to strangle it without causing media outrage.

Case 4
According to media reports, PiS Parliament Speaker Kuchciński used the taxpayers' money to transport his family and friends on VIP planes. Radio ZET reports that there were three flights from Warsaw to Rzeszów, two returns from Rzeszów to Warsaw and one flight on the route Warsaw - Krakow. Each time, Marek Kuchciński was accompanied by family members - in different combinations. On board there was either a daughter, or sons, or a wife.

That type of stuff is normal in all western narions.....would you prefer the Russian system where only Putin can gain those privileges?

PiS gained power promising to eradicate such acts. Not only did they keep the old traditions which they had critisized so much but even stepped up on corruption levels.

And you beleved politicians?

You truly are an idiot.