The EU office tracking embezzlement of money from the European Union (OLAF) has started an investigation at the National Center for Research and Development (NCBR). The reason is two scandals with the granting of grants involving people associated with the Republican environment of Adam Bielan, “Gazeta Wyborcza” reported.
“The European anti-fraud office (OLAF) has started an inspection at the National Center for Research and Development in connection with the Fast Track competition” – reported the NCBR on its website.
“GW”: EU investigators join the NCBR
“OLAF decided to enter the Centre, whose annual budget reaches PLN 8 billion and whose supervision as part of the distribution of spoils in the United Right fell to the Republican Party Adam Bielan“- wrote “Wyborcza”.
“We declare full cooperation and assistance to the control authorities in clarifying all emerging doubts. Each time, in the event of a suspicion of a possible violation of the regulations regarding the implementation of projects financed by the NCRD, the Center will inform the relevant control and investigating authorities. We also ensure that all persons will be severely punished that violated applicable law were both in the case of beneficiaries and employees of the NCBR.
“So far, Poland has been considered a country that, unlike, for example, Hungary, is in a distant place when it comes to embezzlement of EU money. PiS MP Jadwiga Emilewicz in March, she argued on TVN24 that OLAF is not interested in Poland, because our country spends EU funds in an exemplary fashion, “indicated “GW”.
The newspaper stressed that “this was no longer true then”. “The Konkret24 portal reached for the OLAF report on fraud in 2021. The EU office checked 95 projects and estimated irregularities at EUR 11 million. In addition, OLAF investigated the case of extorting EU money for a party convention by Solidarna Polska Zbigniew Ziobro. The money was supposed to go to the organization of a conference on climate issues, but only a few sentences were said at the convention.
This is probably why the Minister of Justice and Prosecutor General Zbigniew Ziobro liquidated his office Solidarna Polska party and established a new Sovereign Poland. Poland also did not join the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, which deals with the prosecution of crimes that threaten the EU budget. Now OLAF will deal with the National Center for Research and Development, in which – as revealed by the media and KO MPs Dariusz Joński and Michał Szczerba – there have been abuses for years with intentional or unintentional passivity and inefficiency of this government agency and state services, “we read in “GW”.
In the “Press Lodge” about the NCBR
Journalists participating in the TVN24 program “Loża Pras” referred to the information “GW”.
– I once allowed myself to say that the case of the National Center for Research and Development is not a matter of a financial scandal, but an invoice paid to politicians for treason and supporting Jarosław Kaczyński. (…) There is also European money and so far Poland has been treated as a country that has good resources and that is why it is becoming a very serious matter, also from the perspective of future EU funds. (…) Much more money and extended over a longer period of time – emphasized Paweł Wroński from “Gazeta Wyborcza”.
Mariusz Janicki from “Polityka” said that “it is clear that PiS has divided some influence and some money, loot”. – (Zbigniew) Ziobro’s party got the State Forests and the Justice Fund, the Republicans got the National Center for Research and Development, Paweł Kukiz also got money for his own foundation. The money has been divided because the state is treated as a booty due to this political party – said Janicki.
In turn, Renata Grochal from “Newsweek” said that “before Adam Bielan got busy with the National Center for Research and Development and his party, companies related to the Minister of Health Łukasz Szumowski and President Daniel Obajtek received huge funds from there, because it turned out that the production of foil, which private business is some kind of strategic branch of the economy and you have to spend money on innovation.
– Bielan seeing how much you can get out of there. Today, people associated with him or companies associated with the Republicans simply receive money from our taxes for voting together with PiS – said Grochal.
– Problems and irregularities can be seen with the naked eye in the National Center for Research and Development. The Fast Path program itself is also a problem and how fast it is and how much it allows such irregularities – said Jacek Prusinowski from Radio PLUS.
The scandal at the National Center for Research and Development
The scandal concerns, among others, the case of two grants awarded as part of the competition of the National Center for Research and Development: Fast track – digital innovations.
The first subsidy, amounting to PLN 55 million, was awarded to a company with a capital of PLN 5,000. PLN established 10 days before the deadline for submitting applications, by a less than 30-year-old. The company’s application received the lowest possible score for financing.
The second suspicious subsidy – in the amount of PLN 123 million – was awarded to the Białystok company Chime Networks for a project on “undersea cybersecurity”, which had been making losses in the last two years.
At the beginning of March, KO parliamentarians Dariusz Joński and Michał Szczerba, who conducted the parliamentary inspection at the NCRD, announced that the payment of funds to these two companies had been blocked. They also presented the network of connections between these companies and the Republican Party.
Main photo source: TVN24