Photo CBA
A draft act on the liquidation of the Central Anticorruption Bureau was published in the list of legislative works of the Council of Ministers. “The legal act is primarily intended to improve and strengthen the coordination of anti-corruption activities currently carried out by various state services,” we read in the project’s assumptions.
Assumptions draft act on strengthening the coordination of anti-corruption activities, liquidation of the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau and amending certain acts saw the light of day on Monday. The body responsible for developing the project is the coordinator of special services, Tomasz Siemoniak, and the person responsible for the project itself is his deputy secretary of state in the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, Radosław Kujawa. “The proposed legal act has above all, improve and strengthen the coordination of anti-corruption activities currently conducted by various state services,” we read in the project assumptions.
“The current concept of centralizing most anti-corruption activities within one institution – the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA), while leaving some scopes of anti-corruption activities under the responsibility of other state services has not proven to be optimal and requires change,” says the project’s sponsor.
According to the essence of the solutions planned in the project “it is necessary to adopt and enter into force the proposed act”, which include, among others: “strengthening the coordination of anti-corruption activities by establishing an anti-corruption shield, which is a set of procedures aimed at improving the effectiveness of state services in recognizing and counteracting corruption in public and economic life and activities aimed at the economic interests of the state.”
The project also assumes liquidation of the Central Anticorruption Bureau and “transferring the burden of fighting corruption to other institutions specialized in this field.” “This action will also allow us to reduce the number of Polish special services equipped with instruments enabling intensive interference in civil rights and liberties, including: through the use of covert surveillance software. The tasks currently performed by the CBA will be transferred to the Internal Security Agency, the National Tax Administration and the Police,” we read. As added in the document, “due to the takeover of most of the tasks, the CBA will be established within the Police structure Central Bureau for Combating Corruption (CBZK).”
„The institutions designated to take over the tasks of the Central Anticorruption Bureau in the fight against corruption are politically neutral, and also have forces and resources that will enable them to have a real and effective ability to detect and prosecute cases of corruption at the highest levels of government, regardless of the political option currently in power. Many years of experience of these institutions (…) will translate into skillful implementation, in the structures and areas of material competence assigned to them, of reliable and effective prevention of corruption-generating phenomena through continuous educational and information activities. In turn, distributing the burden of fighting corruption among several institutions will allow, in the event of detection of this type of crimes, to take effective, professional and fully independent actions aimed at prosecuting the actual perpetrators of corruption crimes, and not carrying out activities that are part of a political fight,” we read in the justification for the project.
According to the assumptions, the planned date of adoption of the project by the Council of Ministers is: second quarter of 2024.
