Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski worked for the T4B group of companies for as long as six years. His duties included sales and auditing. It is precisely this company—holding a monopoly in the technology of so-called “smart bins” that weigh and identify waste—that stands to benefit from the government’s newly proposed solutions. What is more, the Ministry of Digital Affairs, which he oversees, issued an opinion on the project.
Let us recall what we reported on Thursday.
On October 31, a draft amendment to the Act on Maintaining Cleanliness and Order in Municipalities was published on government websites. The author is the Ministry of Climate and Environment. It has just been submitted for interministerial consultation.
Dangerous ties
The draft introduces significant changes to how waste management operates at the municipal level. It introduces differentiated fees based on the weight of waste and the quality of household waste sorting. Such an innovation requires the introduction of modern technical solutions—devices equipped with modules for weighing waste and identifying the person disposing of it via a QR code assigned to each household. These data are collected in a special electronic system accessible to local authorities.
There is one company in Poland—a monopolist in this field—that can roll out this technology at scale “immediately.” This refers to T4B Sp. z o.o. and its directly connected subsidiary, T-Master S.A. Both companies were founded and are led by Robert Szczepankowski.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Affairs in Donald Tusk’s government, Krzysztof Gawkowski, has extensive ties to T4B, the company that dominates the market. We previously reported on two years of cooperation. Now we have uncovered new details. Namely, before becoming an MP in 2019, Gawkowski worked for T4B for a total of six years. The Ministry of Digital Affairs confirmed this in response to questions from Niezalezna.pl.
Krzysztof Gawkowski worked in the T4B group from 2007–2010 and from 2016–2019. From 2007–2010 he worked in sales; from 2016–2019 he dealt with information security and auditing. He included the remuneration from this work in his financial disclosure statement after obtaining his parliamentary seat in 2019. “After the cooperation ended, he never supported the company’s activities in any way,” the ministry stated.
Additionally, it turns out that old ties do not rust. After yesterday’s article, several people contacted us saying that between 2019 and December 2023 they had seen Gawkowski at one of the editions of the Economic Forum in Karpacz in the company of the T4B president. At the time an opposition MP, now Deputy Prime Minister, he was introducing Szczepankowski to others while the company president eagerly handed out his business cards.
In his 2019 parliamentary financial statement, Gawkowski declared earning 130,400 złoty from T4B Sp. z o.o. under a contract of mandate. In 2020 he declared 159,040 złoty.
According to our sources, Gawkowski’s wife was also employed by T4B.
Activities of the Ministry of Digital Affairs
We asked the ministry whether Gawkowski, as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Affairs, issued an opinion on the draft amendment to the Act on Maintaining Cleanliness and Order in Municipalities.
“The draft reached the Minister of Digital Affairs as part of interministerial consultations. The Ministry of Digital Affairs submitted its comments on November 17, 2025. The comments concerned personal-data issues and were prepared based on input from the Ministry’s Data Management Department. The letter containing the comments will be made available by the submitting authority on the website of the Government Legislation Center. Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski did not participate in preparing the comments and held no discussions on the matter,” the ministry informed us.