Anti-Corruption Program

Fighting corruption in the everyday life

Each year the Foundation commissions a public opinion poll, on the basis of which an indicator called “corruption barometer” is established. By asking the same questions every year we verify how the attitude of society to the problem and scale of corruption changes. Together with the poll, each year, we conduct in-depth research on corruption problems in specific aspects of social life. On the basis of this research, 4 reports to date have been published: Corruption in the everyday life (2000), Patients and doctors on corruption in the public health service (2001), Public opinion and officials on corruption in local governments (2002), and Public opinion and businessmen on corruption (2003). In 2004 our focus is on political corruption in the case of law-making processes. The reports from the research are presented at public seminars and are available at our Website.

In 2004, the in-depth study concerned political corruption, including corruption in the legislative process, and had the participation of 232 deputies. The report on Public opinion and deputies about corruption research prepared by Dr Anna Kubiak from the Sociology Institute of Łódź University was presented at the conference in September 2004. During the conference, a report by Piotr Rymaszewski, Piotr Kurek and Paweł Dobrowolski entitled Reform of the legislative process prepared for the Centre for Social and Economic Research was also presented.

In 2004, we announced the 5th edition of the Only fish don’t take bait? contest, addressed to investigative journalists. 162 press, radio and television materials were submitted, prepared by 59 journalists from 26 various media outlets. The Award’s Committee: Klaus Bachmann (Willy Brandt Centre of German and European Studies of Wroclaw University), Krzysztof Bobiński (Unia&Polska), Teresa Bogucka (Gazeta Wyborcza), Marcin Król (Respublica), Justyna Duriasz-Bułhak (Foundation for the Support of Rural Areas) and Janusz Buszyński (US Embassy) awarded 5 prizes:

• 1st prize of PLN 12,298 was awarded to:
  Marek Kęskrawiec from the Newsweek Poland weekly and Aleksandra Tudyka from TVN television for a series of articles entitled Dead Souls and a cycle of TV reports entitled Clinics, filmed in cooperation with Maciej Kuciel, disclosing the scale of fraudulent payments drawn from the National Health Fund by health care service employees.
• 2nd prize of PLN 7,267 was awarded to:
  Bertold Kittel from the Rzeczpospolita daily for a series of reports entitled Secret Accounts of Former Common Insurance Company (PZU) Bosses, of which two were contributed to by Anna Marszałek and Andrzej Stankiewicz.
• 3rd prize of PLN 6,149 was awarded to:
  Jarosław Jabrzyk from TVN for two television reports: Prosecutor and Prosecutor 2, that present the story of a district prosecutor from Katowice caught demanding a bribe.
• a special prize of PLN 6,149 was awarded to Tomasz Prusek from the Gazeta Wyborcza daily for the article entitled I write, therefore I don’t play, regarding the moral dilemmas of journalists covering the stock market.
• a prize of PLN 4,000 for materials discussing local Polish issues, was awarded to Ewa Szkurłat-Adamska from Radio Krakow Małopolska for In a Magic Circle reports (the prize was funded by the Foundation for the Support of Rural Areas).

The awards ceremony was accompanied by a Corruption and populism debate moderated by Aleksander Smolar, Foundation President, with the participation of Dr. Tomasz Żukowski, sociologist, Jacek Żakowski, Polityka weekly publicist, prof. Antoni Kamiński, politologist and Piotr Zaremba, Wprost weekly publicist.

Since 2001 the Program supports a Medical Task Force focusing on ethics in public health care. In 2004, the Task Force developed a project of regulations concerning creation of publicly available waiting lists for the rationed medical services. The project was presented to the Minister of Health and the solutions it proposed were incorporated by the Act on Health Care Institutions adopted by the Parliament. The Task Force also developed a checklist that enables to evaluate draft legislative changes in health care laws with respect to corruption threats, and identified the corruption-prone areas in the government draft bill for publicly financed health care debated in the Parliament.

On April 7, 2004, we organized a discussion regarding the political responsibility of public persons. The discussion began with a presentation of the Impunity of the political class? report authored by Piotr Koryś from the Warsaw University Department of Economics, constituting a review and summary of corruption scandals revealed in recent years in Poland. Dr Richard Jarvis, secretary of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, presented ways to prevent corruption at the highest levels of power in OECD states, while Prof. Zbigniew Hołda from the Jagiellonian University in Cracow, discussed whether Poland lacks proper legal regulations or, rather, an appropriate culture in public life. Dr. Wojciech Łukowski from the University of Warsaw discussed how to change the prevalent atmosphere of tolerance and acceptance of corruption and its perpetrators. A transcript of the discussion is available at www.przeciw-korupcji.org.pl.

Since 2000, we have been providing a legal cunselling for people who have encountered corruption. In 2004, due to the constantly increasing caseload, we invited the network of University Legal Clinics to participate; 7 of the 16 existing clinics agreed to provide legal assistance to clients, while 2 students from the Warsaw University Clinic assist us in the preliminary screening of incoming cases.In 2004, we were asked to help in 132 cases of corruption, as of the end of the year we had helped in 97. The matters in which we intervene frequently require expansive knowledge, including in administrative and business law. The following provide us with pro bono assistance: Andrzej Szeniawski, specialist in local government, Maciej Łaszczuk, lawyer, business law, and Judge Przemysław Szustakiewicz, public procurement law.

Public scrutiny of government at national level

For 7 years Poland has been forming a corpus of civil service, which is to be a guaranty for an apolitical, professional set of employees of the public administration. However, the governments violate or circumvent the regulations of Civil Service Act, adopted in 1996. In the report Civil service in the Republic of Poland: critical points, prepared for the Program by Krzysztof Burnetko in 2003, an analysis of the present state of civil service was presented together with the proposals of necessary changes. In 2004, Witold Filipowicz, a public service employee of many years, drafted a report on hiring for lower-level civil service positions and presented it on April 16, 2004 at a seminar for a group of specialists. Cezary Lewanowicz from the European Commission and member of the State School of Administration Alumni Association presented an accompanying paper. The report was critical of the hiring practices for lower-level civil service positions and formented a lively discussion. The document and a transcript of the discussion were sent to all central government offices, and both chambers of the Parliament.

In September 2002 Polish government adopted an anti-corruption strategy. This document included numerous entries treated as strict obligations: it stated precisely who must do what and in what time-limit. Anti-Corruption Program assumed the monitoring of this strategy. Every 6 months we verify if the government fulfilled the obligations adopted in the strategy and inform the public opinion the result of our findings.

At the end of 2003, the 3rd and final phase of the strategy implementation was completed. However, the government failed to present a report on execution of its tasks. On March 4, 2004, at a press conference, we presented our evaluation of the execution of obligations assumed by the government in the anti-corruption strategy. In our opinion, there were material delays in execution of about 30% of tasks listed in the government document, some of them were not initiated at all. We also had serious reservations as to the qualitative content and sincerity of the execution of many tasks.

In 2004, we commissioned Celina Nowak from the Legal Studies Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences to prepare two reports regarding amending Polish law to comply with international conventions regarding corruption. These reports were presented at press conferences on July 1 and December 10, 2004, and were also sent to all deputies’ clubs and applicable Parliamentary committees and ministries.

The first report contained an evaluation of the adaptation of Polish legislation to the requirements of three international conventions recently ratified by Poland: ECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions, Criminal Law Convention on Corruption and the European Council Convention against corruption in civil law. Jerzy Szymański from the State Prosecutor’s Office presented a paper accompanying the report.

The second report concerned evaluation of the implementation of the UN Convention Against Corruption, which Poland signed in 2003, and indicated what work should be done for this document to be quickly ratified by our country.

In collaboration with the Helsinki Human Rights Foundation and the Social Communication Foundation we have been reviewing how political parties are fulfilling their pledge to fight corruption made during the parliamentary election campaign in 2001. We organise annual conferences attended by party representatives to evaluate the status of implementation of election promises.

Nine political parties attended the conference in 2004. We asked them about corruption scandals publicised by the media in which their members participated and about the way they will be dealt with. The conference was co-organized by Michał Karnowski from Newsweek and Krzysztof Skowroński from Polsat television. A journalist of the www.ngo.pl portal summarised the words of the politicians taking part in the meeting as follows: “Although all politicians deemed corruption to be harmful, there was no such unanimity when evaluating particular scandals. As such, scandals publicised by the media involving their party colleagues were trivialized.” A transcript of the discussion can be found at www.przeciw-korupcji.org.pl.

Licenses and permits required in the Polish economy as factors conducive to corruption were discussed at the seminar organized October 10, 2004. A presentation of the paper Restrictions on the economy by Janusz Paczocha from the National Bank of Poland provided an introduction to the discussion. Jerzy Molak, Director of the Internal Economic Turnover Regulation Department at the Ministry of the Economy and Labour, and attorney Wojciech Błaszczyk, Vice President of the Polish Confederation of Private Business, responded to the thesis presented in the work.

Public scrutiny of government at the local level

In 2000 we initiated the formation of a network of local civic groups to monitor the activity of the authorities and to organize educational campaign for a greater transparency of public life. Each year, we train a group of leaders to deal with monitoring actions of authorities and conduct a campaign on behalf of increased transparency in public life. Training consists of nine meetings, two days each, organized every 4-5 weeks. After completing the training the leaders form Civic Groups to act for the transparency of public life in their local community.

Training of the fourth group of candidates for leaders of Local Groups lasted from October 2003 through September 2004. Participants of this cycle had to prepare an evaluation of their municipality corruption threats and organize a local debate on corruption. 25 persons participated,16 completed the training. New Local Civic Groups began their operations in Bielawa, Bieruń, Karpacz, Katowice, Kłomnice, Łódź, Morąg, Oświęcim, Płock, Police, Strażów, Stroń Śląski and Tarnowiec. Their activities include: monitoring access to information in local government offices, setting up citizens’ helpdesks, outreach, particularly among youth (anti-corruption lessons in schools). In October 2004, we began the fifth and final cycle of trainings, for which 22 people were qualified.

In 2004, we prepared a publication Notes for Local Civic Group leaders which contains materials about corruption, legal regulations, activities taken domestically and abroad to combat corruption and get access to information, about scrutinizing the transparency of local government institutions, as well as information about local activities on behalf of transparency in the functioning of public institutions.

In 2004, we cooperated with the Local Civic Group Leaders Association (registered near the end of 2003), which brings together active leaders of civic groups.

The project initiated and co-funded by Agora S.A. and Polish-American Freedom Foundation aims to launch a social campaign for transparent operation of municipality offices. The World Bank and Civic Education Center cooperate with us in it.

The 2-year project began in November 2003. Sixteen municipalities from all Polish provinces took part in the first project stage, which was executed along with the Foundation of Local Democracy Development. Local governments participating in the campaign were implementing a Model of Transparent Municipality prepared by the Anti-Corruption Program and based on six principles for the functioning of an office: transparency, predictability, accountability, professionalism, public participation and zero tolerance for corruption.

The second project phase, open to local governments in all of Poland, began in October 2004. It is accompanied by a Transparent Poland public campaign run by the Gazeta Wyborcza daily. In the campaign, we encourage representatives of local governments to introduce at least some of the tenets of the Transparent Municipality Model. We prepared minimum, standard and full task packets. Members of the Local Civic Group Leaders Association, amongst other, monitor realization thereof.

We work with the Czech, Slovak and Hungarian offices of Transparency International to build a coalition of officials, councillors and NGO leaders towards implementing transparency into local government offices in capital cities of the Visegrad countries. Each year the representatives of the cities meet to share the knowledge and experience and develop and commit to implement an anti-corruption action plan.

In 2004, a conference was held in Warsaw. It was opened with a report on the execution of pledges made by the representatives of four capitals a year prior. Officials from Warsaw’s city hall informed about the opening of Customer Service Offices between January and May 2004 in five city districts and their intention to open another four in 2005. However, Warsaw did not meet one of its obligations from the previous meeting: it adopted neither a city council member code nor a local government employee code. The Warsaw Civic Group presented a project of transparent rules for subsidising NGOs from public funds. The conference program also included 5 workshops in which issues related to social control of public procurement, internal control, conflict of interest, as well as the challenges and opportunities related to accession to the European Union were discussed. The Czech chapter of Transparency International presented the results of Transparency index of cities sociological research. Conference participants made new obligations for 2005.