Aleksander Grad, former Minister of the Treasury in the PO-PSL government, has joined the Industrial Development Agency (ARP). Along with Paweł Wojtunik, former head of the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA), he became an advisor to the president of this state-owned company, Bartłomiej Babuśka, TV Republika has learned. Officially, the company does not comment on the matter. “All personnel matters, including the composition of the team supporting the president, are internal company issues,” responded ARP spokesperson.
Babuśka replaced Wojciech Balczun as head of ARP, after Prime Minister Donald Tusk reassigned him to another post – he was appointed Minister of State Assets, one of the most influential positions in the government.
ARP: An internal company matter
According to several unofficial sources of TV Republika, not only Aleksander Grad advises ARP, but also former head of the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau, Paweł Wojtunik, who after the change of power became vice president of Kredobank with headquarters in Lviv (owned by PKO Bank Polski). It is worth noting that both Babuśka and the new advisor Grad have long-standing ties to Tarnów. ARP spokesperson Katarzyna Frendl gave evasive answers to our questions about President Babuśka’s advisors. “The management board undertakes all actions and decisions aimed at ensuring the best and most stable development of the company, always guided by its well-being and interests. All personnel matters, including the composition of the team supporting the president, are internal company issues,” said Frendl. “At present, we have no official information to share publicly on the matter raised in your question. We will certainly inform about all important decisions in due time and through proper communication channels.”
Last week, the public learned about new plans of the Industrial Development Agency.
Babuśka announced the creation of an international department focused on relations with Kyiv. Planned investments related to Ukraine’s reconstruction include, for example, a railway link from Silesia to Odesa on tracks of “European” gauge. But that is not all. Babuśka emphasized that eventually an intergovernmental agreement will be signed specifying investment projects in Ukraine with Poland’s participation. In his view, these should mainly be logistical infrastructure – roads, possibly a Polish cargo airport terminal in central Ukraine, or even a Polish port on the Black Sea.
The ARP president stressed that the key is to create a logistics connection from Silesia through Lesser Poland to Ukraine and further to Odesa. “This is the future – railways with European gauge. If Ukraine is thinking of joining the EU, it cannot be done on broad-gauge tracks. However, different solutions are possible,” said Babuśka. He added that Azerbaijan is an example where “narrow and broad-gauge tracks are laid side by side.” “We are talking about investments on this scale, about land acquisition along tracks covering over 800 km from Lviv to Odesa,” he explained.
Who is Grad?
Aleksander Grad is a former Minister of the Treasury in Donald Tusk’s first government. During his tenure, the Ministry of the Treasury sought to sell part of Lotos shares to entities such as Hungarian MOL, Dutch Mercuria, and the Russian-British joint venture of the Tyumen Oil Company with British Petroleum (TNK-BP).
Grad was a member of Civic Platform (PO) and served as an MP in the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th terms. In 2012, he resigned from his parliamentary mandate. Later, Grad was appointed president of two companies, PGE Energia Jądrowa and PGE EJ 1, part of the Polish Energy Group (PGE), responsible for the nuclear energy program. His combined salary amounted to approx. 55,000 PLN gross.
As a side note, at that time the president of PGE was Marek Woszczyk, who since July 1, 2025, has been the head of Polskie Elektrownie Jądrowe (PEJ).
Grad became president of PGE EJ 1 and PGE Energia Jądrowa, which were responsible for the nuclear energy program and preparing the construction of the first nuclear power plant, although as Minister of the Treasury he was mainly known for restructuring the shipyards in Gdynia and Szczecin. Minister Grad promised that, acting under the so-called Shipyard Special Act, he would take steps to preserve many jobs in the shipbuilding sector. Nothing of the sort happened. The Supreme Audit Office (NIK), which investigated the restructuring process, found a mass of serious irregularities.
From February 2014 to November 2015, Grad was a member of the Supervisory Board of the Polish Power Exchange. In March 2014, he became vice president of Tauron Polska Energia, a position he held until October 2015. In February 2016, he was appointed president of the Pątnów-Adamów-Konin Power Plant Group. He resigned in June 2016. Earlier, in 2009, a settlement was reached with Dutch company Eureko. “I have very good news for you. Today – a day I consider the most important in my work in this building – we concluded an agreement with Eureko that ends our ten-year dispute over PZU SA,” announced Treasury Minister Grad. The settlement unblocked the company’s development. The State Treasury paid 4.77 billion PLN for it.
Commentators, however, did not share Minister Grad’s enthusiasm. “The settlement looks decent, but the fact that it took so long to reach it damaged Poland’s image. Today politicians can finally breathe a sigh of relief that the matter ended with an agreement, but joy is misplaced. A situation where Poland concludes a binding agreement – as was the case under Marek Belka’s government – and then withdraws from it does not serve the country. Such behavior is perceived very negatively in the world. There can be no acceptance of a policy that undermines agreements. Investors who would like to conclude a contract with obligations deferred over time now have reason to doubt whether the conditions will be met. This case has definitely harmed us,” said years ago Jan Łopata from PSL.
The conflict between Eureko and the Ministry of the Treasury concerned the privatization agreement of PZU from 1999, including the company’s stock market debut and the purchase of an additional 21% stake. Eureko estimated the damages from the non-performance of the PZU privatization agreement at about 35.6 billion PLN, not including legal costs and possible interest.
We were unable to reach Aleksander Grad. We sent questions about him to the MGGP Group in Tarnów, where he sits on the Supervisory Board. As of publication, we had not received a reply. Paweł Wojtunik also did not respond to our message. Both serve in their advisory roles on a voluntary basis, which means they do not receive remuneration.
Grad’s son on trial with Sławomir Nowak
Meanwhile, the Warsaw District Court is hearing a case against Aleksander Grad’s son, Paweł. He is on trial alongside Sławomir Nowak, once an influential PO politician and former Minister of Transport in the PO-PSL government, who is accused by the prosecutor’s office of soliciting and accepting approx. 6.1 million PLN in bribes. Most of them he allegedly took while serving as president of Ukravtodor, the Ukrainian road agency. The former Treasury Minister’s son is accused of passing Nowak, through the company Europe Partners, a bribe of 77,000 PLN. The bribe allegedly took the form of an invoice for consulting services that prosecutors claim were fictitious. Paweł G. pleads not guilty.
In September 2024, in court, the former minister’s son explained: “During the period covered by the indictment, there were no proceedings for highway services in the Lviv region. Our company, when Sławomir Nowak was head of Ukravtodor, participated in only one tender. But it did not concern highways, nor did it concern the Lviv region, but the entire border area between Poland and Ukraine. Nor was it about highway services, but about supervising the design and construction of local roads. This is important because the charge indicates a completely different area of our company’s activity,” he said. “To put it even more plainly: if the prosecutor accused me of stealing a car, that car does not exist. I regret that there is no dialogue with the prosecutor’s office. In my opinion, it simply looked like this: when investigators saw that a contract was concluded with a company employing the son of a former Treasury Minister, it was automatically necessary to charge him,” he added.