• About the Foundation
• Foundation in 2005
• Our Donors
• The Foundation Council, Board, Program Committees and Staff
• The Batory Foundation Debates
• Civil Society Program
• Third Sector Program
• Legal Education Program
• Anti-Corruption Program
• Equal Opportunities Program
• International Cooperation Program
• Citizens in Action Program
• Community Initiatives Partnership Program
• Twin Cities Program
• East-East Program
• Regional Alcohol and Drug Program
• Grants
• Financial Report 2005

Home page

Annual Report 2005

Anti-Corruption Program

The aim of the Program, carried out in collaboration with the Helsinki Human Rights Foundation, is to raise the level of trust in public institutions, build social awareness and inform public of different types and aspects of corruption. We pursue these objectives by initiating and supporting a civic movement towards increased transparency of public life, monitoring authorities (especially at the central level), running information and education campaigns aimed at changing citizens’ attitudes toward corruption in everyday life and by proposing legislative changes which ensure greater public participation in decision-making processes, guarantee their transparency and protect against corrupt practices.

In 2005 we were implementing following projects:

Corruption barometer. Public opinion and prosecutors on corruption report

Each year, the Foundation commissions a public opinion poll on the basis of which an indicator called the ‘corruption barometer’ is established. By asking the same questions every year we study changes in society's attitude towards the problem and scale of corruption. Together with the poll, we conduct in-depth research on corruption problems in specific aspects of social life. So far, these have concerned corruption in: everyday life, the public health service, local governments, business, the legislative process. In 2005, we focused on the problem of corruption among public prosecutors in Appellate, District and Regional Public Prosecutor’s Offices, i.e. those who work in ‘direct contact’ with various forms of criminal activity. In an individual, anonymous poll, we studied the attitude of public prosecutors toward corruption, inquired about instances of corruption they know of and asked for an assessment of its potential threat, as well as for their opinion on the existing legal instruments to fight it. 200 public prosecutors participated in the study. A report is available at the Program’s website.

Monitoring of election promises

In 2001, in collaboration with the Helsinki Human Rights Foundation and the Social Communication Foundation, we monitored promises made by political parties during the parliamentary election campaign. We collected electoral committee declarations concerning the fight against corruption. Every year, at a special press conference on the anniversary of election day, representatives of political parties present information on the fulfillment of their commitments. In 2005, with the end of the parliamentary term, we prepared a special report assessing the achievementsof political parties in counteracting corruption in 2001–2005, which was presented at a conference on September 8.

In 2005, two new organizations: the Civic Education Centre and the School of Leaders Association joined the anti-corruption coalition to continue monitoring of the electoral promises in the current fifth parliamentary term. During the election campaign, the group established an anticorruption catalogue containing a list of the most important issues posing a corruption threat. The catalogue was sent to electoral committees of the following political parties: League of Polish Families, Democratic Party, Civic Platform, Polish Peasants’ Party, Law and Justice, Self Defense of the Republic of Poland, Democratic Left Alliance and Social Democratic Party of Poland, together with a request to indicate the issues which in their opinion should be urgently discussed by the new parliament and to present suggestions for the best solutions of these problems. All electoral committees answered our questions and, during a conference on September 8, their representatives presented the anti-corruption priorities of their parties and signed election promises for counteracting corruption they would strive to fulfill during the new parliamentary term.

Monitoring of presidential election campaign financing

In cooperation with the Institute of Public Affairs, we organized the first Polish monitoring of presidential election campaign financing. Our aim was to enable public scrutiny of financing sources and spending of election committees of 2005 Polish presidential candidates. In the framework of the project, we conducted an analysis of donations, public fund-raisings and committee outlays for media campaigns, propaganda materials and election meetings. The monitoring was carried out together with Media Direction OMD Media House and a group of 50 trained volunteers, who created monitoring groups in their towns to monitor local media campaigns and candidate election meetings. 11 organizations collaborating in the project received grants to cover costs of monitoring activity.

Monitoring results were presented in two partial reports. On October 14, after the first round of elections, we presented an analysis of selected election committees, including instances of violating and circumventing the law and using public funds and functions for election campaign purposes. On December 12, we published a report with data from the 2nd election round and information on total spending for internet campaigns, transport, remuneration, election office facilities, etc. from both election rounds. The final report will be presented in 2006, after submission of election committees’ financial reports to the National Election Commission.

Local Civic Groups

In 2000, we began forming a network of local civic groups to monitor authority activities and organize educational campaigns for greater transparency of public life. From October 2004 to September 2005, we conducted the final, fifth training for local civic group leaders. 22 people participated and 18 completed the training. Participants were given the task to organize a debate on corruption-prone issues in their community and conduct a school lesson on corruption. Graduates of the fifth training cycle set up Local Civic Groups in Piła, Szklarska Poręba, Chrzanów, Ostróda, Ruda Śląska and Olsztyn.

In 2005, we cooperated with the Association of Local Civic Group Leaders, registered at the end of 2003. Four Local Groups from the Association participated in the project of monitoring presidential election campaign financing.

Transparent Poland campaign

The aim of the project, initiated and co-funded by Agora S.A. and Polish-American Freedom Foundation, was to conduct a national social campaign for transparent operation of municipality offices. The project began in November 2003 with a pilot campaign conducted by the Foundation in Support of Local Democracy in 16 Polish municipalities. Local governments participating in the project were implementing the Transparent Municipality Model, developed for our Program, which includes 6 basic principles as guidelines for local governments operation: 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 and was accompanied by a Transparent Poland public campaign run by the Gazeta Wyborcza daily. 775 municipalities joined the project, pledging to introduce at least some of the tenets of the Transparent Municipality Model. Their progress reports posted on project’s internet platform are judged by the experts. They are also monitored by 170 local organizations active in the municipalities participating in the project. The organizations are assisted in their monitoring activities by the Association of Local Civic Group Leaders.

Only fish don’t take bait? contest for journalists

In 2005, we announced the 6th edition of the Only fish don’t take bait? contest, addressed to investigative journalists. 165 press pieces by 64 journalists from 17 national, regional and local papers, 5 radio stations and 1 television channel were submitted. The Contest Jury, made up of journalists: Magdalena Bajer, Krzysztof Bobiński, Teresa Bogucka, Marcin Król and Stanisław Mocek (Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Collegium Civitas), Justyna Duriasz-Bułhak (Rural Development Foundation) and Janusz Buszyński (United States Embassy), awarded 5 prizes, without selecting a laureate for the first prize. The prizes went to:

Two 2nd prizes (PLN 5 896 each)
Andrzej Stankiewicz and Michał Stankiewicz from the Rzeczpospolita journal for their articles: The Mafia Doesn’t Pay Taxes, They’ll Change Suspicious Law and Statute of Limitations Runs Faster on Tax Fraud, uncovering corruption-generating lawmaking mechanisms.
Andrzej R. Potocki and Igor Ryciak from the Newsweek Polska weekly for their articles: Millions in the Barracks and The Fall of the Director. The authors described non-transparent mechanisms functioning at the Health Ministry’s Central Investment Board, which squanders large sums from the underfinanced health services budget.

3rd prize (PLN 4 717)
Bianka Mikołajewska from Polityka weekly for her article The Great SKOK and The Big Five’s Savings Bank, describing the point of convergence of politics and business and the mechanism of creating a monopoly and granting selected institutions special privileges.

Special prize (PLN 7 075)
Tomasz Michałowicz from Gazeta Wyborcza for his report Hope Dealer. The report depicts the shocking mechanism of extorting bribes, made possible by an atmosphere of consent for this type of situation in the Polish health service.

Local press prize (PLN 4 000) financed by the Rural Development Foundation
Marta Krzyżanowska from the Panorama Leszczyńska weekly for a series of articles entitled With Money, There Will Be Everything. The articles describe the problem of wrongly understood professional solidarity, which makes it impossible to conclude the court case of an attorney suspected of professional misconduct. The Jury acknowledged the author for taking up this difficult subject matter.

The Batory Foundation, the United States Embassy and the Rural Development Foundation financed the prizes. The awards ceremony was accompanied by a discussion on journalistic reliability moderated by Stanisław Mocek (Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Collegium Civitas) with the participation of Marek Miller (Institute of Journalism, Warsaw University), lawyer Jerzy Naumann and editor Ernest Skalski.

Medical Task Force

Since 2001 the Program supports a Medical Task Force focusing on ethics in public health care. In 2005, the Task Force organized two debates: a discussion on the functioning of the process of selecting hospital ward directors, with the participation of doctors: Jarosław Pinkas (Group member), Wojciech Marquardt (Vice-Chairman of the Supreme Medical Council), Małgorzata Kalińska, Prof. Krzysztof Bielecki and Wojciech Puzyna (April 12), and a debate dedicated to current health service issues (September 15), with the participation of political party representatives: Maciej Piróg (Democratic Party), Władysław Szkop (Social Democratic Party of Poland), Jacek Piątkiewicz (Law and Justice party), Robert Stolarek (Democratic Left Alliance), Elżbieta Radziszewska (Civic Platform), Józef Szczepańczyk (Polish Peasants’ Party), Lech Wędrychowicz (Self Defense). Additionally, Task Force members assessed and consulted over a dozen draft bills prepared by the Health Ministry.

Legal counsel

Since 2000, we have been providing a legal counseling for people who have encountered corruption. In 2005, we received 108 cases and dealt with over half of them. Actions taken by us included: 5 interventions to prosecutor’s offices calling for the initiation of preparatory or case supervision proceedings, 11 interventions to courts and other public institutions and official bodies, 20 statements, positions and public information, 9 answers to questions asked by journalists, individuals and local NGO activists concerning applicable law or the legality of case facts. Three cases were directed to University Legal Clinics, which cooperate with the Program.

Conferences and seminars

Conference: Corruption and counteraction. What has changed during the past 5 years?

On January 21–22, we organized a conference summarizing our 4-year experiences with counteracting corruption in Poland. The conference was attended by Polish and foreign experts including: Miklos Marschall (Transparency International, Berlin), Wolfgang Rau (Group of States Against Corruption GRECO), Dr Marek Zubik (Constitutional Tribunal), Dr Celina Nowak (Institute of Legal Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences), Ludwik Dorn (Law and Justice deputy), Teresa Romerowa (judge, Iustitia Polish Judges Association), Prof. Andrzej Rzepliński (Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights), Prof. Edmund Wnuk-Lipiński (Institute of Legal Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences), Prof. Lena Kolarska-Bobińska (Institute of Public Affairs), Prof. Andrzej Kojder (Warsaw University), Anna Marszałek (Rzeczpospolita daily), Jerzy Jurecki (Tygodnik Podhalański weekly), Prof. Jacek Kurczewski (Department of Applied Social Sciences and Resocialisation of Warsaw University), Prof. Krzysztof Kiciński (Warsaw University), Prof. Antoni Kamiński (Institute of Legal Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences), Janina Paradowska (Polityka weekly), Henryka Bochniarz (Polish Confederation of Private Employers), Krzysztof Szwedowski (Supreme Chamber of Control) and Jacek Wojciechowicz (World Bank). The discussion centered on following issues: the Polish corruption problem as seen by international organizations, corruption in the eyes of public opinion, amending anti-corruption laws, law enforcement and justice system functioning, the role of investigative journalists in public life, public involvement in counteracting corruption.

Seminar: Corruption in Italy and methods of curbing it

On March 17, at the invitation of the Foundation, Professor Luciano Segreto (University of Florence) presented a lecture on corruption in Italy and methods of fighting it. Miłada Jedrysik (Gazeta Wyborcza daily) and Prof. Jacek Kurczewski (Department of Applied Social Sciences and Rehabilitation of Warsaw University) spoke of implications of Italian experiences for Poland.

In 2005, the Program was financed by grants from: the Open Society Institute, the Royal Netherlands Embassy, and the Embassy of the United States.

Program costs

Grants

Copyright © Fundacja Batorego