Chief auditor notifies prosecutor about possible misconduct by his deputy

Acting chief of NIK legal department Barbara Komar informed at a press conference on Wednesday that the NIK President Marian Banaś has asked the Speaker of the Sejm Elżbieta Witek to remove his deputy Tadeusz Dziuba from office.

"At the same time I'd like to inform that the Warszawa-Ochota Regional Prosecutor's Office has been notified about possible crime (...) in the form of negligence of duty," she added. She referred to a refusal to hold a vote during a session of the NIK council. She explained that the decision had been detrimental to public interest, as it had jeopardized NIK's legal duties, "and as a result - duties of the chamber itself as well as its chief".

Barbara Komar added that another possible misconduct by Dziuba had been reported in July 2020. "That notification pertained to deputy chief's action taken to influence audit results," she explained. The prosecutor's had then refused to launch an inquiry, but the court overruled this decision as premature and ordered to have Dziuba questioned.

The NIK chief issued two more requests to the Sejm Speaker. One regarding manning the NIK council. "At the moment, apart from the NIK management, this body consists of only 7 members out of 14," Komar said. She added that Banaś had repeated his call to for the council to appoint 4 new members in July this year, but to no effect.

"In the her response the Sejm Speaker stressed the need for proposing other candidates, as those submitted had been negatively verified the state control committee. But according the NIK chief, committee's opinion was not binding (...), and furthermore, in his view it was non-substantive," she said.

The other request pertains to hearing scheduled by the committee at which a motion to strip Banaś of immunity is to be discussed. "The chairman would like to take part in this session, but a session of state control committee has been scheduled for the same day, at which a report on NIK activities in 2020 is to be examined," Barbara Komar said and added that presenting said report is a constitutional duty which should not collide with other affairs.