Government adopts draft bill dissolving CBA

Under the provisions of the draft bill submitted to the government, some of the tasks of the CBA will be transferred to an anti-corruption unit within the police, which will be established as the Central Bureau for Combating Corruption. Additionally, the Internal Security Agency (ABW) will be strengthened, and the National Revenue Administration (KAS) will take over the examination of asset declarations.

Of the approximately 1,300 officers and 200 civilian employees of the CBA, 950 officers and 200 civilian employees are expected to be reassigned to the police. The new Central Bureau for Combating Corruption will also incorporate approximately 300 officers and civilian employees from other police units. KAS will gain around 150 positions, while ABW will receive 200.

The CBA's budget will be allocated proportionally to the reassigned tasks and positions, with the largest share - 73 percent - going to the police, followed by 15.5 percent to ABW and 11.5 percent to KAS, according to the justification of the bill and the impact assessment presented at Tuesday's meeting.

The abolition of the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA) was included in the coalition agreement of the parties forming the current government.

Before Tuesday's government meeting, Prime Minister Donald Tusk criticized the CBA's recent years as a mockery of the mission it was supposed to uphold when it was established. According to the Prime Minister, these years demonstrated that the previous administration ruthlessly used various methods, including state services, for political purposes.

"Everyone in Poland increasingly had the depressing impression that the institution created to fight corruption was actually protecting those in power and targeting the opposition," Tusk remarked. He recalled that the founding principle of the Bureau was precisely the opposite - to act as a watchdog over those in power. However, the agency, he said, had been corrupted by its predecessors.

The Prime Minister expressed confidence that the project prepared by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration (MSWiA), approved by the Council of Ministers, would "eradicate the evils that have proliferated within this institution." He added that the state would become more effective in combating corruption and that the agencies tasked with fighting corruption would focus on those in power rather than the opposition.