“There is a reasonable suspicion that crimes have been committed by those granting subsidies, intermediaries, and those defrauding the system” – said prosecutor Jacek Skała. He added: “I can see half the criminal code here”. For now, however, the Warsaw Regional Prosecutor’s Office has limited itself to a statement about “preliminary verification activities”, while Minister of Justice and Prosecutor General Waldemar Żurek – so active in the media in recent days – has suddenly fallen silent.
A massive scandal has erupted in Donald Tusk’s government over the distribution of funds from the National Recovery Plan (KPO). Almost every hour, new facts are coming to light, fueling even greater public outrage. The narrative of the December 13 coalition politicians – that they did not know, did not hear, or reacted immediately – is also collapsing.
“The Ministry knew about the boats – it answered questions from operators on whether boats with combustion engines could be allowed. The Minister assured entrepreneurs that she personally intervened to loosen the initial rules so that the funds would flow more smoothly and quickly,” revealed today the dismissed president of PARP, Katarzyna Duber-Stachurska.
She added: “The Minister ordered the audit to be carried out by the same people who have been running the program for a year and a half – in other words, she told them to audit themselves”.
It is no surprise that questions are increasingly being asked about the actions of the security services, and above all, the prosecution. So far, there has been only an exceptionally terse statement:
“The Warsaw Regional Prosecutor’s Office has, ex officio, undertaken preliminary verification activities in connection with media reports of irregularities in granting subsidies from the Krajowy Plan Odbudowy”. This has surprised legal experts.
“Hello! Warsaw Regional Prosecutor’s Office! How are those verification activities going? We know it’s the weekend, but some evidence may be irretrievably lost” – commented the Ad Vocem association on X. “If anyone thinks they can close the eyes and mouths of citizens with an enigmatic statement about verification activities in the matter of granting KPO subsidies, they are mistaken”.
“And where is the Prosecutor General and what does he think about this? Perhaps, given the scale of the phenomenon, it would be worth appointing an investigative team?” they added. Prosecutor Jacek Skała, chairman of the Trade Union of Prosecutors and Employees of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Poland, also reacted.
“In my opinion, there are no grounds for conducting preliminary verification activities, because there is reasonable suspicion that crimes have been committed by those granting subsidies, intermediaries, and those defrauding the system. In such a situation, there are legal grounds to initiate an investigation” – he wrote. “I will not suggest the legal qualification, but as my former boss used to say: Mr. Jacek, I can see half the criminal code here,” he concluded.