Physical drives were discarded, but all documents, all information they included, have been stored and archived in line with the regulations - Poland's Deputy Foreign Minister Paweł Jabłoński said on Wednesday (Nov. 15). In response to an opposition MP's request, the ministry has recently revealed it discarded 400 kg of hard drives and other memory storage devices.
Civic Coalition MP Krzysztof Brejza asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the number of documents destroyed in October in that ministry. He asked about all kinds of data storage devices, including hard drives, computers, USB flash drives as well as external drives. According to the ministry's response to Brejza's query, after the Oct. 15 parliamentary election, the ministry has "physically disposed" of 400 kilograms of various drives.
The ministry also informed that, during 26 days in October, it had destroyed nine 600-liter containers filled with documents, four 240-liter containers, and five 120-liter ones. On top of that, the ministry discarded 89 bags filled with folders and publications with the MFA logo.
According to the MFA, the disposal process was carried out based on an agreement signed with an external entity. The ministry did not specify exactly what entity it was.
Jabłoński: all data is archived and stored
Deputy Foreign Minister Paweł Jabłoński was asked about the disposal process by reporters on Wednesday.
"I assure you that it only pertains to physical drives, but all documents, all information they included, have been stored and archived in line with the regulations," he explained.
The minister added that "whoever wants to look into the documents - including those from 10, 15, or 20 years back - can do it following the relevant regulations".
He reminded that "this kind of activities are carried out on a regular basis" and "it is not something that has happened only recently, and wasn't happening before".
"The very content of the data is stored in the archives. Everything is available. ... No one has absolutely nothing to hide," Jabłoński said.
Budka: it's simply criminal activity
MP Borys Budka of Civic Coalition mentioned the year 2015, when he was handing over control of the Ministry of Justice to Zbigniew Ziobro. "No one would even consider allowing oneself doing the kind of things that have recently taken place in the foreign ministry," he said.
"If the media reports turn out to be true, that the documents and data storage devices were being destroyed, than this is purely criminal activity," Budka added.
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, TVN24
Źródło zdjęcia głównego: TVN24