The head of the PiS Settlement Team, Roman Giertych (KO), announced that a report would be filed next week about a possible crime committed by members of the PKOl board. He explained that it concerns the suspicion of using state money “for private purposes that have nothing to do with the PKOl's goals.”
According to Katarzyna Kierzek-Koperska, a member of the Civic Coalition MP team, “during the PiS era” a “web of personal connections, the so-called Family on Its Own” was created around the Polish Olympic Committee.
“In connection with emerging information about the use of PKOl money, which de facto comes directly or indirectly from the State Treasury, for the purpose of financing the families of PKOl activists, including the president himself, to the detriment of the PKOl, but also to the athletes who had the right to count on the PKOl's assistance, we are filing a notification of a possible crime committed by members of the PKOl board under art. 296 par. 1 and 2 of the Penal Code,” the MP wrote on Friday on Platform X.
The articles mentioned above mention, among other things, causing significant property damage to a natural person, legal person or administrative unit.
Notification to the prosecutor's office about the PKOl board
Head of the PiS Settlement Team Roman Giertych informed that the notification will be submitted to the District Prosecutor's Office in Warsaw next week.
Giertych added that the presidium of the team he leads wondered whether the issue of sports associations falls under the jurisdiction of Law and Justice. – Since PiS supporters have attacked these sports associations like locusts, we decided that we have the knowledge in this area to deal with this matter – he said.
According to Giertych, the media “obviously” indicated the possibility of a crime being committed by the authorities of sports associations. It was supposed to involve – as he said – the use of state money “for private purposes that have nothing to do with the goals of the Polish Olympic Committee, or with sports purposes at all.”
– And since this association refused to provide information on the allocation of money publicly to the minister, To Sławomir Nitraswe found that there was a basis for the prosecutor to investigate the case, he added.
Nitras: We will explain every case of negligence
On Monday, the Minister of Sport, Sławomir Nitras, presented data on the X portal regarding the financing from the state budget of athletes' preparations for the Olympic Games in Paris in 2022-24.
They show that the Ministry of Sport and Tourism and state-owned companies transferred PLN 92,163,180 to the Polish Olympic Committee during this period. Meanwhile, Polish Olympic associations received PLN 785,659,000 from the state budget during the same period.
Nitras asked the president of the Polish Olympic Committee, Radosław Piesiewicz, to provide documentation concerning, among other things, the composition of the delegations of individual associations to the Olympic Games in Paris. This information was to be sent to the Ministry of Sport and Tourism by August 14, 2024. This was related to the criticism of the president of the Polish Olympic Committee in the media that athletes had worse conditions than committee officials.
“We will clarify every case of negligence reported by athletes. There were too many signals regarding the lack of presence of trainers, physiotherapists or lack of equipment. We are starting by establishing who and in what capacity was present at the Olympic Games using public money,” Nitras said at the time.
The President of the Polish Olympic Committee does not want to disclose information about the public money spent
On Friday, Nitras said that the Polish Olympic Committee had not provided information about the money spent and stressed that an official IOC document requires such information to be disclosed.
The President of the Polish Olympic Committee, Radosław Piesiewicz, asked a few days ago about Nitras's words about the over PLN 92 million transferred to the Polish Olympic Committee by State Treasury companies in the years 2022-2024 and about Nitras demanding an explanation of what this public money was spent on, argued that he acts in accordance with the law and “works hard every day for the benefit of the Polish Olympic Committee”.
– We receive money not as a donation, but as sponsorship. Every quarter or half a year we submit reports for the completion of the task. We also transfer some of the money directly to Polish sports associations – said Piesiewicz.
Main image source: Newspix