- Onet journalists got to know the list of bonuses paid to the most important people at NIK
- In the years 2017-2019, several dozen key people at the Supreme Audit Office divided over seven million PLN among themselves
- The Byzantium at NIK has been going on for years, regardless of who the president is. The NIK vice presidents appointed in autumn to give PiS quickly applied for bonuses for their assistants and secretaries
- Efforts are also underway to buy an olive tree for the office of Vice President Marek Opioła, a former PiS MP
These amounts are impressive. Five-member management of the Supreme Audit Office cashed over 600,000 in total in 2017-19 bonuses (on average, almost PLN 130,000). Twenty advisors from the chairman of the Supreme Audit Office – almost 2.4 million (on average PLN 120,000). Directors of NIK’s departments and field delegations – PLN 4.7 million (about PLN 125 thousand per person).
Awarded 31 times
The record holder is the president’s advisor Józef Górny, who collected almost 350,000 from April 2014 to November 2019. zł. He has been awarded 31 times.
The vast majority of the awards were paid to him by Krzysztof Kwiatkowski, who was associated with the Civic Platform, who managed the NIK until the summer of 2019. But the last prize – 12,000 PLN in November 2019 – this is the decision of Marian Banas, head of the Supreme Audit Office from PiS.
Górny is an employee of the Supreme Audit Office since 2001, its long-term CEO and vice president. Before joining the Supreme Audit Office, he was a member of the Solidarity Election Action.
Another record holder is Andrzej Styczen, the general director of the Supreme Audit Office in Kwiatkowski and Banasia – between spring 2017 and summer 2019 he received over 235,000. zł. Kwiatkowski himself (almost PLN 85 thousand) and his deputies – Wojciech Kutyła (101.5 thousand), Ewa Polkowska (102 thousand) and Mieczysław Łuczak associated with PSL (118 thousand) collected less.
Friend of Marta Kaczyńska
But the money also flowed to NIK officials related to PiS. The current Vice President of the Supreme Audit Office, Małgorzata Motylow, associated with PiS, collected over 110,000 from June 2016 to November 2019. zł. Also in her case Kwiatkowski approved the majority of payments.
This is because after the PiS victory in the parliamentary election in 2015, Kwiatkowski went on a silent agreement with PiS and agreed to introduce Motylow – an official of the Supreme Chamber of Control from Gdańsk, colleague Marta Kaczyńska – to the college of the Supreme Audit Office.
The college is an advisory body to the head of the Supreme Audit Office. Approves the Chamber’s work plan, draft statute and budget. The key is that the college gives opinions on key NIK audits, and also examines the reservations of the most important institutions in the country for post-audit statements.
After Marian Banas took power in NIK, Motylow was promoted to vice president. In autumn 2019, Banaś awarded her the highest one-time prize – 19,000. zł.
Son of PiS MP
Tomasz Sobecki, son of former Law and Justice deputy Anna Sobecka, once an announcer of Radio Maryja, is also high on the pay list. Kwiatkowski also introduced him to the college as part of concessions to PiS. For two years, Sobecki collected over 160,000. awards.
In total, several dozen key people at the Supreme Audit Office in the years 2017-2019 divided over PLN 7 million among themselves. We were unable to get a comment from the former president of the Supreme Audit Office, and today associated with the opposition senator Krzysztof Kwiatkowski, who paid out most of the awards we described.
Olive tree order
Anyway, the Byzantium at NIK lasts, regardless of who the president is. After Banas took power in the NIK, his deputies – apart from Motylow – were former PiS deputies Tadeusz Dziuba and Marek Opioła. Only after half a year of work – in June this year – they applied for bonuses for their associates, 10,000 each zł.
Opoła wanted to give money to his assistant, and Dziuba – to the head of the secretary’s office. The NIK press office did not answer us whether these awards were paid out.
Opioła has other expectations. On June 23, his secretariat sent the following order to the NIK economic office: “Referring to the letter of January 16 this year, I would again kindly ask you to purchase an olive tree to the office of the Vice President of the Supreme Audit Office, Mr. Marek Opioła.”
Opioła did not answer Onet’s question, why does he need an olive tree, which he has been applying for for half a year. He sent us to the NIK press office, which is silent.
And NIK is silent
The subject of awards at the Supreme Audit Office returns regularly. The Chamber always responds in a similar way. He recalls the Act of 1981 on the remuneration of persons in managerial positions, a regulation of the President of the Republic of Poland in a similar matter, as well as an ordinance of the Speaker of the Sejm regarding the remuneration of NIK employees.
Paragraph 8 of this ordinance states that a prize fund is created ‘in the amount of 3 percent of planned personal remuneration’.
The total amount of awards therefore depended on the budget of the entire Supreme Audit Office. In recent years, some of the awards were decided by the president, others were managed by the directors of the organizational units of the Supreme Audit Office. The head of the Chamber concluded a special agreement with trade unions in this matter.
We wanted to find out what the policy of rewarding employees by president Marian Banasia looks like. We sent questions regarding this matter to the NIK press office. We didn’t receive an answer.
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