Corruption in Poland
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Corruption in Poland is below the world average but not insignificant. Within Poland, surveys of Polish citizens reveal that it is perceived to be a major problem.


Historical

In the early 1920s, during the first years of the
Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of ...
, Polish institutions were plagued by endemic corruption, and several of the governments of the day were accused of widespread corruption, very likely with a sound cause. Between 1923 and 1926,
Józef Piłsudski ), Vilna Governorate, Russian Empire (now Lithuania) , death_date = , death_place = Warsaw, Poland , constituency = , party = None (formerly PPS) , spouse = , children = Wan ...
came to conclude that the system which he dubbed "
Sejm The Sejm (English: , Polish: ), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (Polish: ''Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''), is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of t ...
ocracy" fostered general corruption, ultimately leading him to launch the May Coup and seize power. His byword
Sanation Sanation ( pl, Sanacja, ) was a Polish political movement that was created in the interwar period, prior to Józef Piłsudski's May 1926 ''Coup d'État'', and came to power in the wake of that coup. In 1928 its political activists would go on ...
referred to the cleansing he promised to introduce, in contrast to his predecessors' shady practices. However, once in power, his allies uncovered very few cases of corruption in past governments; persistent references to mass corruption amounted to a type of "primitive propaganda", in the words of historian Andrzej Garlicki. Later, it was Piłsudskiites who became embroiled in a well-publicized scandal revolving around election budgets, the Czechowicz Affair. By the 1930s, the country had developed an economic model involving
nationalised industry State ownership, also called government ownership and public ownership, is the ownership of an industry, asset, or enterprise by the state or a public body representing a community, as opposed to an individual or private party. Public ownershi ...
, with key industries in government hands. While this fostered growth in vital areas, it also gave rise to inefficiency and corruption. Private businesses found it hard to compete directly with state-owned concerns, in particular for public contracts. In the communist
People's Republic of Poland The Polish People's Republic ( pl, Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL) was a country in Central Europe that existed from 1947 to 1989 as the predecessor of the modern Republic of Poland. With a population of approximately 37.9 million nea ...
, corruption was widespread, particularly by
Polish United Workers Party The Polish United Workers' Party ( pl, Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza; ), commonly abbreviated to PZPR, was the communist party which ruled the Polish People's Republic as a one-party state from 1948 to 1989. The PZPR had led two other lega ...
officials (''see
nomenklatura The ''nomenklatura'' ( rus, номенклату́ра, p=nəmʲɪnklɐˈturə, a=ru-номенклатура.ogg; from la, nomenclatura) were a category of people within the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries who held various key admi ...
''). Corruption under the communist regime was so pervasive that some scholars have referred to the system as "legalized corruption".


Recent era

Global Integrity Global Integrity is an independent, nonprofit organization tracking governance and corruption trends around the world using local teams of researchers and journalists to monitor openness and accountability. Global Integrity's reporting has been ci ...
2010 report gave Poland the score of 80 out of 100 assessing the legal framework as 86 (strong) and actual implementation as 71 (moderate). The report scored Poland particularly well (score of 90) in categories for "Non-Governmental Organizations, Public Information and Media" and "Elections", and particularly low in the category for "Public Administration and Professionalism" (score of 59). A 2011 report by the
Institute of Public Affairs The Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) is a conservative non-profit free market public policy think tankAbout the IPA
...
also criticized the standards of public life in Poland, and the prevalence of
nepotism Nepotism is an advantage, privilege, or position that is granted to relatives and friends in an occupation or field. These fields may include but are not limited to, business, politics, academia, entertainment, sports, fitness, religion, an ...
and
cronyism Cronyism is the spoils system practice of partiality in awarding jobs and other advantages to friends or trusted colleagues, especially in politics and between politicians and supportive organizations. For example, cronyism occurs when appointin ...
. A 2012 report jointly prepared by from the Institute of Public Affairs (ISP) and
Transparency International Transparency International e.V. (TI) is a German registered association founded in 1993 by former employees of the World Bank. Based in Berlin, its nonprofit and non-governmental purpose is to take action to combat global corruption with civil ...
(TI) notes that the corruption in Poland is lower than in the past when in the mid-1990s it was "a phenomenon of a systemic nature". As described in that report, the World Bank
Worldwide Governance Indicators Based on a long-standing research program of the World Bank, the Worldwide Governance Indicators capture six key dimensions of governance (Voice & Accountability, Political Stability and Lack of Violence, Government Effectiveness, Regulatory Qual ...
(accessible her

for "rule of law" and "control of corruption" show steady improvement for Poland. Poland has joined the
OECD Anti-Bribery Convention The OECD Anti-Bribery Convention (officially Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions) is an anti-corruption convention of the OECD that requires signatory countries to criminalize brib ...
in 2000, implementing relevant legislation in 2001. Poland has also made significant progress in combating corruption like the establishment of the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau and the first anti-corruption strategy which was adopted in 2002. The 2012 report from the ISP and TI, reviewing individual Polish anti-corruption institution, praised the Supreme Audit Office (NIK), followed by the
Polish Ombudsman The Polish Ombudsman ( pl, Rzecznik Praw Obywatelskich, literally Advocate for Citizens' Rights, now referring to itself in English as the "Commissioner for Human Rights" and earlier as the "Human Rights Defender," often abbreviated ''RPO'') is a ...
(RPO). It criticized the civil society, the private sector, and the executive and public administration of insufficient efforts in fighting corruption. Poland's watchdog organisations are considered weak in combating corruption, and corruption allegations often appear in government contracting and permit issuance. The 2012 report from the ISP and TI praised the overall direction of the anti-corruption efforts in Poland, noting that they are "bringing noticeable results", but noted that those efforts, particularly from the public authorities, are "rather chaotic, sometimes contradictory or even controversial". It concluded that "corruption in Poland still entails considerable risks" and "the level of anti-corruption protection is unsatisfactory". A 2013 OECD report analyzing the implementation of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention concluded that "the current Polish framework for fighting foreign bribery is still inadequate". A 2013 survey in Poland found that 83% of surveyed Polish citizens think that corruption is a major problem for their country, particularly prevalent among politicians (62 percent) and in the health-care sector (53 percent). A growing number of citizens (57%) is concerned that there is no political will to fight corruption. On TI's 2022
Corruption Perceptions Index The Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) is an index which ranks countries "by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys." The CPI generally defines corruption as an "abuse of entru ...
, Poland scored 55 on a scale from 0 ("highly corrupt") to 100 ("very clean"). When ranked by score, Poland ranked 45th among the 180 countries in the Index, where the country ranked first is perceived to have the most honest public sector. For comparison, the best score was 90 (ranked 1) and the worst score was 12 (ranked 180).


See also

* * * * * * * * * * * *


References


External links


Poland Corruption Profile
* Grzegorz Wolszczak

(Anti-)Corruption in Poland since Early 2000 to 2010 * (Subchapter on Poland) {{Europe topic, Corruption in Corruption in Poland,
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...