Sunday, August 02, 2009

Defense Ministry accused of large scale nepotism

Defense Minister Bogdan Klich has employed local Civic Platform (PO) members and his friends in military institutions in Kraków, reads a report in Rzeczpospolita.

After this fact was revealed the opposition and the media accused Klich of nepotism and violating political standards.

Defense Ministry spokesman Robert Rochowicz explained that all those were employed through open competition, and that people who were appointed fulfilled all requirements. Meanwhile, the Minister for battling corruption Julia Pitera, has questioned this statement and declared that the competitions have to be held again.

The employees in question are being dismissed and the Ministry was requested to introduce new procedures in relation to employing new people.

Defense industry could slash jobs

And, in a related story, a fall in orders from the military could force defense-sector companies to slash their workforces this year. Rzeczpospolita reports that up to 5,000 people in the industries could be made redundant.

Around 400 workers at tank producer Czolgowe Zaklady Mechaniczne Bumar ?ab?dy have exited the firm. By the end of the year a total of around 800 workers will have to leave Bumar Group, which currently employs 2,800.

Airplane parts producer WSK Rzeszów and PZL Wola, an engine producer, could each shed around 300 people.

“Other defense industry companies and research institutes regularly cut jobs, but without publicity,” Malgorzata Kucab from trade union NSZZ Military Workers told the daily.

Pawel Soroka, of the Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski Polish Industrial Lobby, told Rzeczpospolita that he calculated around 5,000 jobs would be lost in the military manufacturing sector in the coming months, out of approximately 46,000 jobs in the industry.
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