“Gazeta Wyborcza” described the report of the Supreme Audit Office on the visa scandal. As reported by the daily, 366 thousand visas for citizens of Muslim and African countries were issued often without verification, and even under the dictation of PiS politicians. “Consuls were constantly pressured to issue as many visas as possible,” writes “GW”.
“Wyborcza” reported that the report with attachments is over 300 pages long. “It is the result of the work of seven auditors of the Supreme Audit Office, who for several months analyzed documents of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, correspondence of the consular department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with missions and interrogated employees of the ministry. They completed their work in July 2024,” we read.
According to the report NIKto which “GW” refers, the actions taken by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the scope of supervision over the issuing of visas were “unlawful, inappropriate and unreliable and resulted in the mismanagement of public funds”.
“NIK calculated that 366,551 visas were issued to citizens of Muslim and African countries, including nearly 174,000 in the period from January 2021 to June 2023,” we read.
In its report, the Chamber accuses the government PISthat “he was not interested in who and how received a Polish visa” – writes the newspaper. According to the report quoted by “GW”, “consuls were constantly pressured to issue as many visas as possible, because in Poland work permits were issued to foreigners en masse”.
“NIK auditors report that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has even set standards for issuing visas to consuls. At the same time, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has officially prohibited them from checking whether a person applying for a visa as, for example, a welder actually has the necessary qualifications and authorizations. According to NIK, issuing such a ban is a violation of the law,” we read in “Wyborcza”.
NIK: Four ministers are to blame
As reported by “GW”, the documentation shows that the Minister of Foreign Affairs did not reliably supervise how visas were issued. “A non-transparent and corruption-prone mechanism for influencing some consuls operated in the MFA,” the Supreme Audit Office quoted in the daily indicated.
According to the auditors, the blame for the irregularities lies with four ministers of foreign affairs appointed by Law and Justice: Witold Waszczykowski, Jacek Czaputowicz, Zbigniew Rau and Szymon Szynkowski vel Sęk, who held office for only two weeks at the turn of November and December 2023 – “Wyborcza” reported.
Main image source: PAP/Marcin Obara