Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Poland to get anti-corruption minister

Head of the anti-corruption watchdog, Transparency International-Polska in 2001-2005, Julia Pitera is to become a Minister without Portfolio in the new Polish government formed by Civic Platform (PO), after their win in the general election.

She is to be responsible for fighting corruption.

“We want to create a commission responsible for these aspects of fighting corruption that were not included it the Anti-Corruption Bureau act,” said the future minister.

“This will be a monitoring-analytic team dealing with all motions and information concerning irregularities in procedures,” explained Pitera.

“Of course we should prosecute criminals, but first of all we need to limit the possibilities to commit a crime, eliminate temptations and loopholes in the state’s structure,” Pitera said.

Apart from this the commission will be watching big tenders, such as those accompanying EURO 2012 organisation. Julia Pitera added that she intends to form a stable structure that would survive no matter what future elections results are. The new body will also suggest which law regulations are “corruption-prone” and should be changed. Pitera also plans to prepare regulations of legal protection for people who informed about corruption or administrative irregularities. “Such a person should be under protection of law, and we do not have proper reglations,” Pitera believes.
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