Fundacja im. Stefana Batorego

Anti-Corruption Program

The program’s goal is to prevent corruption and increase transparency in public life. We monitor the government and political parties for compliance with anti-corruption legislation and transparency standards, evaluate how electoral campaign promises to prevent corruption made by political parties are kept and check the implementation of government anticorruption strategies. We investigate transparency of campaign financing and public expenditures. We observe the legislative process and support regulations that ensure transparency in decision-making and provide bulwarks against corrupt practices. We work with local civic groups that monitor transparency of public institutions at the local level and provide legal counseling for individuals who have reported corruption.

Monitoring of electoral promises

This project has been operated since 2001 by the NGO Anticorruption Coalition, which consists of Batory Foundation, Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, Foundation for Social Communication, Civic Education Center, School for Leaders Association and Association of Leaders of Local Civic Groups. Prior to each parliamentary election, the Coalition asks political parties to submit declarations on the anti-corruption measures they would advocate in the Parliament. The Coalition reviews later how political parties elected to the Parliament keep their election promises and whether party members observe transparency standards. The results of this monitoring are presented at the annual conferences and summed up in a report published at the end of the term of the parliament.
On September 26, 2007, we organized the annual review conference, which due to early parliamentary elections, turned to the conference on the fulfillment of anti-corruption promises made by parties elected to the previous term of the parliament. The coalition’s materials included data on implementation of promises made by parties (summary of parliamentary work: legislative bills, votes by party members) as well as data concerning behavior of various party members (violations of the law, conflicts of interest). The data showed that the governing party, Law and Justice, was the most active in the sphere of fighting corruption. However, not all legislative projects submitted by that party properly served the purpose. Some of the amendments to Public Procurement Law and the Law on State Human Resources and High State Positions stirred criticism. Our experts: Mirosława Grabowska Ph.D. and Prof. Edmund Wnuk-Lipińsk (sociologists), Prof. Andrzej Zoll (professor of law, former Chair of the Constitutional Tribunal), and Michał Karnowski (journalist), evaluated the parties’ anticorruption activities using materials prepared by the Coalition. After hearing expert evaluations, representatives of the political parties presented rebuttals: Łukasz Zbonikowski (Law and Justice), Paweł Olszewski (Civic Platform), Ryszard Kalisz (Democratic Left Alliance), Bogdan Socha (Self-Defense) and Józef Szczepańczyk (Polish Peasants Party).
Prior to the earlier parliamentary elections in October 2007, we asked seven political parties to answer three questions concerning the problem of corruption: to identify the most important issues related to corruption prevention, to recommend ways of resolving these issues, and to define their opinion about the future of the Central Anticorruption Office (CAO). Three parties: the Democratic Left Alliance, Civic Platform, and Polish Peasants Party provided answers and declared they would place significantly greater emphasis on the corruption prevention and subject CAO to the oversight the Parliament. We presented these responses along with our commentary to journalists at a press conference on 16 October 2007. The NGO Anticorruption Coalition also opines on important corruption prevention issues. In spring 2007, the Coalition submitted its position paper on the government draft bill to limit economic activity by persons fulfilling public functions to the Marshal of the Parliament and the Parliamentary Justice and Human Rights Commission. After the October elections, the Coalition issued a statement distributed to all parliamentary parties about the need to continue fight with corruption. In the letter, the organizations recommended to put more emphasis on corruption prevention and to subject the Central Anticorruption Office to parliamentary control
More information about Coalition activities is available at www.akop.pl.

Monitoring legislative procedure

Since 2006, pursuant to the Lobbying Law adopted in 2005, we have been conducting legislative monitoring of selected laws important with respect to preventing corruption and increasing transparency of public life. We formulate our opinions and, following procedure, submit them to legislators, i.e. the government or the Parliament. Depending on the legislators' decisions, we take part in the parliamentary subcommittee and committee meetings or public hearings. We publish an annual report on our findings, including violations in the process of adopting the relevant statutes. We strive to assure inclusion in the statutes of provisions that will protect the public interest and to verify the extent to which the Lobbying Act contributes to increased transparency of the legislative process and secures it against extralegal influence.
In January 2007, we published a report containing our observations and recommendations from the monitoring of legislative procedure in 2006. This included the monitoring of the works on the Law on Central Anticorruption Office, a package of laws on state human resources, appointments to high state positions and the civil service, and the bill on financial market supervision. The report notes that deputies of the governing coalition frequently prioritized speed of legislative work over quality and recommends that in order to increase the scarce number of public hearings introduced by the Lobbying Law ,the initiative to request their convening should be expanded to all interested parties, not only parliamentary deputies.
In 2007, we conducted legislative monitoring of three government bills: amendment of the Public Procurement Law, legislation on the Office for Registration of Therapeutic, Medical and Biocidal Products, on limitations related to performing public functions, on conveying State Treasury real property in perpetual usufruct for housing construction purposes, as well as on the amendment of the Games and Betting Law. The monitoring report concludes that the most important legislative process, i.e. the government portion, is least transparent. Further, it is necessary to define the status of ’guests‘ of the parliamentary committees who – often without formal authority – influence legislative solutions adopted by the deputies.

Electoral campaign financing

In 2005-2006, we monitored financing of presidential and local government election campaigns. Our observations identified gaps in current law that enable political parties to cover up improprieties in financial management and uncovered weaknesses in statutory supervision over electoral funds. This induced us to advocate campaign finance reform, an initiative carried out together with the Institute for Public Affairs.
In 2007, we organized an international conference Effective control of political financing (April 26). Speakers included Wolfgang Rau, Secretary-General of the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO), Prof. Karl-Heinz Nassmacher from the University of Oldenburg, Yves-Marie Doublet, Deputy Director of the Legal Department of the French National Assembly, as well as Marcin Walecki Ph.D. from the European University in Florence. Our guests presented solutions adopted in other countries in relation to parties and electoral campaigns financing, especially in states where political parties are financed from public sources. The second part of the conference focused on our recommendations of possible changes in Polish regulations to ensure better control and oversight of electoral campaigns. The participants, including members of the Parliament present at the conference, received the recommendations with approval.
We also organized a working seminar to summarize local government election campaign monitoring, with the participation of representatives of NGOs, local governments, State Election Commission, and other state institutions (June 21). Conclusions and recommendations developed during the seminar outlined the direction of necessary changes in election laws to borough and county councils as well as to province assemblies to eliminate in future contests the improprieties observed during the monitoring. The recommendations were delivered to the media and the MPs.

Monitoring public expenditure

This project, planned for 2007-2008, intends to check for ties between public contract awards and prior donations made by managers or owners of winning companies to governing politicians at various levels of power, especially during the 2005-2007 electoral campaigns. We intend to draft a list of companies that have been awarded public contracts at select ministries and cities, and check the companies’ owners and directors. Subsequently, we will crosscheck this data against political party and candidate donor lists seeking any connections. Such analysis may also flesh out other improprieties in the public procurement process, not necessarily related to politicians ’returning favors‘ for support in electoral campaigns. The improprieties may result, e.g., from the amendments of the Public Procurement Law implemented in 2006 and 2007. Adopted to facilitate absorption of union funds, these changes deregulate tender procedures and limit appeals thus possibly creating opportunities for abuse. We have selected two ministries and three cities to investigate possible ties between politics and business. Each has been controlled by different parties and election committees. Of the two ministries, the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy was run through August 2007 by the Self-Defense Party, then by Law and Justice, and, as of December 2007, by the Civic Platform. The Ministry of Transport was controlled through December 2007 by the Law and Justice party and is currently controlled by the Civic Platform. With respect to the cities, we have chosen Warsaw (governed by Civic Platform), Płock (Law and Justice) and Oświęcim (Self-governing Oświęcim election committee). The project will be completed in 2008 with a report presenting an analysis of findings as well as recommended changes in the law and its application.
In 2007, we drafted a list of donors to political parties participating in presidential and parliamentary elections in 2005, as well as local government elections in 2006. We also compiled a list of public contractors that received orders from the monitored cities and ministries in 2006 to identify the names of winning companies' owners and directors in the relevant cities and ministries. The Public Information Bulletin, the National Court Register and State Election Commission were sources of the information.

Legal counsel

Since 2000, we have provided legal aid to individuals reporting corruption. We advise in the cases that deal with regulations concerning corruption offenses, conflicts of interest, access to public information, public hiring and public procurement. We inform clients and institutions on ways to move forward in specific situations. In appropriate cases, we offer assistance in appeals proceedings, petition supervisory and control bodies and, sometimes, the prosecutor's office, with requests to investigate the matter. In selected cases, we monitor court proceedings as a social representative.
In 2007, we received 67 cases and handled 44 of them. We submitted 23 legal briefs, intervened 10 times with courts, control institutions and the prosecutor, submitted four public information requests, and observed seven court proceedings. The majority of monitored court proceedings were conducted against whistleblowers who had reported abuses in their place of employment or in their community. These individuals were fired, charged with slander or sued. Our interventions with control bodies, investigative agencies, court presidents and the Commissioner for Civil Rights Protection noted the problems raised in the complaints such as limiting access to public information, improprieties in electoral campaign financing, and/or misappropriation of public funds, as well as premature dropping of relevant preliminary proceedings respecting the reported abuses. Our legal advice was primarily dispensed to local activists, journalists, and private individuals who turned to us with the questions whether the problems they encountered or those that outraged public opinion were violations of the law or infringement of ethical standards.

Medical Task Force

The Medical Task Force has been operating at Batory Foundation since 2001. It deals with issues of ethics and preventing corruption in the health service.
A report on survey research prepared by the members of the Medical Task Force in cooperation with the Esculap medical portal, Rzeczpospolita daily and Zdrowie monthly, concerning corruption threats in physician-patient, physician-pharmaceutical company, physician-National Health Fund and physician-medical facility was published on 11 January 2007. Group members, doctors Ewelina Janota and Wiktor Górecki presented the report. Opinions and comments were provided by Wacława Wojtala, Vice Minister of Health, Sylwia Szparkowska, Rzeczpospolita journalist, Jarosław Kosiaty, editor of the Esculap medical portal, Izabella Radecka, editor in chief of Zdrowie monthly, Agnieszka Mielczarek, attorney at Baker & McKenzie law firm, and Adam Kozierkiewicz, member of the Medical Task Force. The then-Minister of Health, Zbigniew Religa, conveyed his comments on the report in writing.
In May 2007, the Group submitted a letter to the Minister of Health suggesting implementation of pilot projects of various forms of patient co-payments. In December 2007, the group submitted a letter to Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Minister of Health Ewa Kopacz indicating the need to implement transparent regulations for selecting drugs to be refunded by the state. Moreover, in 2007, group members reviewed ten draft legislative bills and draft regulations submitted by the Ministry of Health for consultations and submitted their commentary to three of them, including the Law on Hospital Network (some of the bills could not be reviewed due to the brief time provided for this procedure).

In 2007, the program was financed by funds from the Open Society Institute, including a grant from Human Rights and Governance Grants Program, OSI-Budapest and 1% personal income tax payments donated to the Foundation (PLN 170.80).

Total program costs PLN 423, 003.40