Anti-Corruption Program
The Anti-Corruption Program has the objective of building trust in public institutions, fostering civic awareness, and of making the public more sensitive to the various manifestations of corruption in the everyday life. We pursue these objectives by initiating and supporting a civic movement towards increased transparency of public life, information and education activity devised to influence public attitudes towards the phenomenon of corruption in daily life, and by proposing legislative changes which promote social participation in decision making, guarantee the transparency of decision making processes, and institute control mechanisms which prevent corruption.
The Program is implemented in collaboration with the Helsinki Human Rights Foundation. Its main focus in 2002 was the transparency of local and regional government.
In 2002, the Program received funding from: the Ford Foundation (PLN 40 683,99), the World Bank (PLN 40 267), the US Embassy (PLN 14 286), the British Embassy (PLN 6 408), the Constitutional and Legal Policy Institute – COLPI (PLN 198 383,77) and the Open Society Institute EU Accession Monitoring Program (PLN 21 759,62), in Budapest.
Monitoring Transparency in Public Life
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| Monitoring of election promises |
Before the 2001 parliamentary elections the Batory Foundation, the Social Communications Foundation, the Helsinki Human Rights Foundation and Transparency International Poland collected signatures under a petition to all political parties to take measures against corruption and collected from national election committees propositions of anti-corruption measures (the propositions were published in the Election Promises – the 2001 Campaign brochure). On September 23, 2002, the Coalition held its first “review” conference. Ten representatives of political parties responded to questions whether election promises had been fulfilled by their parties. The politicians reviewed the parties’ performance in terms of proposed bills. The Social Democratic Alliance (SLD) presented its “Anti-Corruption Strategy” adopted the previous week. The conference was preceded by a information campaign (posters, television spots, infoline, features in Web portals) |
| Local civic groups |
In 2000 we initiated the formation of a network of local civic groups to play the role of government watchdogs and campaign for a greater transparency of public life on the local level. We trained 21 civic group leaders in the first half of 2002 in two series of training seminars delivered with the technical support of Dr. Cezary Trutkowski of the Sociology Institute, Warsaw University. Another 29 candidates for civic group leaders were invited into the net-work and in November they began training on team building and management, negotiations, conflict resolution and legal/social consequences of corruption. Participants develop a six months work plan and implement it with our support. Examples of civic groups’ activities include setting up citizens’ helpdesks, monitoring access to information in local government offices, organizing workshops on the transparency of government and anti-corruption measures, outreach, particularly among youth, or cooperation with local media. Civic groups were invited to apply for grants in the Foundation’s Legal Education Program. Seven of them received grants (see p. 30). |
| Workshop for local government |
In collaboration with the World Bank, we held a workshop on combating corruption on the local level, attended by representatives of local government associations and local government watchdogs. Recommendations were sent to the Anti-Corruption Task Force supported by the World Bank. |
| Conflicts of Interest in Local Governmentconference |
In April we organized a conference on Conflict of Interest in Local Government: Current Status and Proposed Solution to the Problem. The conference presented findings of a survey conducted in collaboration with Gazeta Wyborcza, Gazeta Prawna and several local newspapers. They suggested a widespread violation of article 18 of the Local Government Employees Act which prohibits combining employment by local government with business activity in the area of responsibility. It also presented the report on anti-corruption legislation applicable to local government in Poland and EU Member States authored by Aleksandra Radwańska, Secretary of the Legislative Committee of the Polish Parliament, and Dag Nils, a Swedish expert. A representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration read out a letter from the minister in which he made a commitment to propose an amendment to the Local Government Employees Act. |
| Check If Your Municipality Is Transparentcampaign |
In the summer before the local elections we ran a campaign Check If Your Municipality is Transparent. We asked over 200 local and regional newspapers and civic groups to review whether their local communities were implementing changes to ensure greater transparency and to prevent conflict of interest and corruption. We attached a report penned by Andrzej Szaniawski entitled A Model of Transparent Local Government which contained a questionnaire to help assess the local situation and identify areas that need improvement. |
| Legal aid |
We are committed to assist those who report individual cases of corruption. We provide advice on what can be done in each specific case, approach regulators and inspection authorities to investigate cases and observe court cases. We dealt with over 90 cases in 2002, most of them were cases of local government misconduct, particularly conflict of interest and the common practice of violating article 18 of the Local Government Employees Act. We made several individual interventions in 2002 and petitioned the Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration to take urgent action. |
Investigative Journalism
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| Only Fish Don’t Take Bait?competition |
The third edition of the contest for journalists on corruption coverage attracted 36 journalists from 21 newspapers and 4 radio stations. The Awards Committee which included Klaus Bachmann, Krzysztof Bobiński, Marcin Król, Marek Nowicki, Stanisław Podemski and Justyna Duriasz-Bułhak representing the Foundation for the Support of Rural Areas and Janusz Buszyński representing the US Embassy awarded 5 prizes:
- the First Prize of PLN 12 000 was awarded to: Tomasz Patora and Marcin Stelmasiak of the Łódź office of Gazeta Wyborcza and Przemysław Witkowski, a reporter from Radio Łódź, for a series of articles and features on corrupt paramedics entitled Skin hunters;
- the Second Prize of PLN 5 000 were awarded to: Michał Karnowski and Andrzej Rafał Potocki of Newsweek for The Minister is Silent;
- the Third Prize of PLN 4 000 was awarded to Leszek Kraskowski of Rzeczpospolita for a series of three articles entitled National Census by German Papers, National Statistical Office Saves German Printers, and Printers in All-Out Mutiny;
- a prize of PLN 5 000 for the best radio feature was awarded to: Hanna Bogoryja-Zakrzewska and Ernest Zozuń for Secret Public Matter and Secrecy Enslaves Emilia produced by the Feature and Documentary Studio of the Polish Radio;
- a prize of PLN 4 000 for an article on rural areas was awarded to Anna Maciąg of the Los for an article entitled Company Relying on Disabled Personnel: Is It Charitable Always? (prize sponsored by the Foundation for the Support of Rural Areas).
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Ethics in Service of Health
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| Medical Task Force |
The Program supports a Task Force focusing on ethics in public health care. The TF campaigns to improve general access to specialized medical services. A review of international practice was published and a questionnaire was sent to 120 cardiology wards asking about the current practice of dealing with waiting lists. TF members offered Health Minister their willingness to take part in the development of the amendment to the Health Management Organizations Bill. |
| How To Write About Health Care Issues workshop |
The health care community responded defensively to the 2001 report on corruption in the health care sector and a series of press articles on unethical conduct of medical staff. Journalists and the report were criticized as unreliable and inattentive to the unique nature of the medical profession. To counter this divide we organized a summer workshop for medical doctors, spokespersons of Sickness Funds and journalists specializing in the health care. Participants took their time to unemotionally express their expectations of the other professions and assess whether they are realistic and what can be changed in the relationship. The workshop was attended by 15 Sickness Fund employees, 11 medical doctors and 13 journalists. |
Civic Education
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| Youth education |
In 2001 in collaboration with the Civic Education Center (CEC) we developed and tested 6 secondary school scripts which emphasize good governance, the importance of transparency and the threat of corruption. In 2002 CEC reviewed the best projects implemented under the Young Citizens Act program and 5 schools presented the results of the Youth Against Corruption campaign. In June during the 10th School for Young Community and Political Leaders organized by the School of Leaders Association we provided a whole-day training seminar on corruption and corruption control. |
| Tertiary education |
In an attempt to encourage academic circles to address corruption in sessions with students we announced in the autumn of 2002 the second edition of the contest for the best students’ projects on the legal, social, ethical and economic impacts of corruption developed in the 2002/2003 academic year. The winning project will be published in a journal of the Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences. |
Reports, manuals
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| Report on Corruption in Local Government |
We publish annual reports on selected aspects of corruption in Poland. In 2002, Dr. Anna Kubiak of the Institute of Sociology of the Łódź University developed a report entitled Public Opinion and Officials on Corruption in Local Government. The report was based on two CBOS surveys among the general public and local government officials on corruption in local government. The report was presented at a conference organized in September. |
| Report on Corruption and Anti-Corruption Policy |
We worked together with the EU Accession Monitoring Program to develop a report on corruption and anti-corruption policies in Poland, to be incorporated into a larger report covering 10 Central and Eastern European countries. We officially presented the report and hosted a debate attended by the authors of the Polish section Małgorzata Fuszara and Jacek Kurczewski, politicians: Jacek Czaputowicz, Ludwik Dorn, Krzysztof Janik, Józef Oleksy, Jarosław Pietras and Quentin Reed, editor of the report. |
| Advice manuals Notes on Democracy |
In 2002, we published Booklet 3 entitled Notes on the Constitution and Booklet 4 Administrative Process as part of the Notes on Democracy – Citizen’s Anti- Corruption Manual series. The purpose of these publications is to help citizens deal with government offices. The author of the series, Maciej Wnuk, is a member of the Polish chapter of Transparency International and has a broad local government experience. |
International Co-operation
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| Joint projects Exchange of experience |
We began implementation of two international projects. The first one, on transparency in local government, is implemented with the Czech chapter of Transparency International, in cooperation with local governments from Prague, Budapest, Bratislava and Warsaw. The other project addresses the reduction of corruption on the Polish-Lithuanian border, and is implemented with the Lithuanian chapter of Transparency International. We organized a study visit to Poland for a group of State Anti-Corruption Agency staff and journalists from Lithuania. We presented the Program to students of law from the Netherlands, journalists from Sweden, MPs from Georgia and lawyers from Armenia, who visited Poland. |
| Competition prizes: |
PLN 26 000,00 zł |
| Operational costs: |
PLN 515 649,48 zl |
| TOTAL: |
PLN 541 649,48 zl |
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