Daniel Obajtek, former president of Orlen and currently PiS candidate for the European Parliament, was summoned before the parliamentary investigative committee into the visa scandal – said the head of the committee, Michał Szczerba. The hearing date was set for May 28. “Attention!” In a report, TVN revealed shocking accounts of foreigners working on Orlen's investment worth PLN 25 billion.
Szczerba said that he had summoned Obajtek for questioning on May 28 at 10 a.m. “Olefiny III (Orlen complex – ed.). Shocking accounts of foreigners working on Orlen's investment. Exploitation and violation of workers' rights. But also a new version of the visa scandal that is emerging from documents,” Szczerba wrote in a post on the X platform.
READ: “We lived in conditions that were unfit for humans.” They talk about working on the Orlen investment
“Some kind of transfer channel has been created for a significant number of people”
Earlier, Szczerba said that the committee had collected documents from the Ministry of State Assets, which showed that there were irregularities when “recruiting” employees by two companies with State Treasury participation – Orlen and Grupa Azoty – for their investments.
According to Szczerba, the people indicated by both companies received visas as future employees of the investment, and at the same time, a large number of these people either did not appear in Poland at all or did not show up at their workplace. – A large number of people also left this job after a short time, which actually means that a transfer channel was created for a significant number of people – explained Szczerba. He added that irregularities also concern adding to the list of employees people who were not directly related to these investments, “who did not even know where they were going.”
Orlen's main production plant, the largest refinery and petrochemical complex in Poland and one of the largest in Europe, is located in Płock. The company signed a contract for the construction of the Olefiny III complex there with Hyundai Engineering based in Seoul and with Tecnicas Reunidas based in Madrid in June 2021. The Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into the visa scandal is investigating abuses, negligence and omissions in the legalization of the stay of foreigners in Poland in the period from November 12, 2019 to November 20, 2023.
Main photo source: Łukasz Gągulski/PAP