The District Prosecutor's Office in Warsaw has launched an investigation into the financing of the weekly “Do Rzeczy” by the State Forests in 2022-2023. It concerns nearly three million złoty spent from the Forest Fund. The case is being handled by the Central Anticorruption Bureau.
The spokesman for the District Prosecutor's Office in Warsaw, prosecutor Piotr Antoni Skiba, announced that on Thursday, July 25, the Warsaw prosecutor's office initiated an investigation into the abuse of granted powers and failure to fulfill obligations at the turn of 2022-2023 by public officials of the State Forests National Forest Holding and persons obliged to deal with property matters and business activity this entity in connection with the implementation of promotional tasks of the State Forests through the State Forests Information Centre and the expenditure of public funds from the Forest Fund.
Almost three million zlotys
“The abuse consisted in concluding agreements for the provision of promotional services with media entities, knowing that the expenditure of funds for cooperation with the weekly 'Do Rzeczy' in the amount of PLN 2,841,915 was not related to the implementation of the tasks specified in the Act on Forests and the tasks of the Information Centre of the State Forests and individual Regional Directorates,” said prosecutor Skiba.
He noted that this resulted in the use of the above-mentioned funds to promote a specific political party and specific members of that party in violation of the public procurement procedure and other procurements not subject to the Public Procurement Law, which led to significant property damage to the State Forests National Forest Holding.
State Forests, headquarters in WarsawTVN24
The investigation was entrusted to the Central Anticorruption Bureau Delegation in Warsaw. It was initiated on the basis of a notification from the representative of the State Forests National Forest Holding, which was the result of an audit conducted since January 2024 at the State Forests National Forest Holding. This act is punishable by imprisonment from one to 10 years.
Audit in the State Forests
The State Forests have sent a notification to the prosecutor's office against 11 people, including former head of LP Józef Kubica, in connection with the spending of over PLN 26 million in the years 2020-2023 on “media activities promoting politicians of the Sovereign Poland environment”. According to the results of an audit conducted in the State Forests, in the years 2020-2023, PLN 26,249,483.37 was spent on the benefit of “right-wing-Catholic media”. In 2020, over PLN 1.3 million from contracts with the LP Information Center (CILP) and PLN 32 thousand from contracts with LP units were spent for this purpose. In 2021, it was PLN 1.94 million from CILP and PLN 17 thousand. PLN from contracts with LP units, in 2022 – PLN 2.29 million from CILP and nearly PLN 6 million from contracts with LP units, and in 2023 – over PLN 10.3 million from CILP and over PLN 4.2 million from contracts with LP units. The largest amounts were supported by the weeklies “Do Rzeczy” (PLN 2.48 million) and “Sieci” (over PLN 1.1 million). It was noted that Polska Press and TVP also received money, but the amounts were not given.
Main image source: TVN24