Corruption Barometer.
Public opinion and deputies on corruption
report
Each year the Foundation commissions a public opinion poll, on the basis of which an indicator called “corruption barometer” is established. By asking the same questions every year we verify how the attitude of society to the problem and scale of corruption changes. Together with the poll, each year, we conduct in-depth research on corruption problems in specific aspects of social life. On the basis of this research, 4 reports to date have been published: Corruption in the everyday life (2000), Patients and doctors on
corruption in the public health service (2001), Public opinion and officials on corruption in local governments (2002), and Public opinion and businessmen on corruption (2003). In 2004 our focus is on political corruption in the case
of law-making processes. The reports from the research are presented at public seminars and are available at our Website.
In 2004, the in-depth study concerned political corruption, including corrup- tion in the legislative process, and had the participation of 232 deputies. The report on Public opinion and deputies about corruption research prepa- red by Dr Anna Kubiak from the Sociology Institute of Łódź University was presented at the conference in September 2004. During the conference, a report by Piotr Rymaszewski, Piotr Kurek and Paweł Dobrowolski entitled
Reform of the legislative process prepared for the Centre for Social and Eco-
Only fish don’t take bait?
contest for journalists
In 2004, we announced the 5th edition of the Only fish don’t take bait? con- test, addressed to investigative journalists. 162 press, radio and television materials were submitted, prepared by 59 journalists from 26 various me- dia outlets. The Award’s Committee: Klaus Bachmann (Willy Brandt Centre of German and European Studies of Wroclaw University), Krzysztof Bobiń- ski (Unia & Polska), Teresa Bogucka (Gazeta Wyborcza), Marcin Król (Respu-
blica), Justyna Duriasz-Bułhak (Foundation for the Support of Rural Areas)
and Janusz Buszyński (US Embassy) awarded 5 prizes: – 1st prize of PLN 12 298 was awarded to:
Marek Kęskrawiec from the Newsweek Poland weekly and Aleksandra Tu- dyka from TVN television for a series of articles entitled Dead Souls and a
cycle of TV reports entitled Clinics, filmed in cooperation with Maciej Ku-
ciel, disclosing the scale of fraudulent payments drawn from the National
Health Fund by health care service employees. – 2nd prize of PLN 7267 was awarded to:
Bertold Kittel from the Rzeczpospolita daily for a series of reports entitled
Secret Accounts of Former Common Insurance Company (PZU) Bosses, of which
two were contributed to by Anna Marszałek and Andrzej Stankiewicz. – 3rd prize of PLN 6149 was awarded to:
Jarosław Jabrzyk from TVN for two television reports: Prosecutor and Pro-
secutor 2, that present the story of a district prosecutor from Katowice
caught demanding a bribe.
– a special prize of PLN 6149 was awarded to Tomasz Prusek from the Gaze-
ta Wyborcza daily for the article entitled I write, therefore I don’t play, regar-
ding the moral dilemmas of journalists covering the stock market. – a prize of PLN 4000 for materials discussing local Polish issues, was awar- ded to Ewa Szkurłat-Adamska from Radio Krakow Małopolska for In a
Magic Circle reports (the prize was funded by the Foundation for the Sup-
port of Rural Areas).
The awards ceremony was accompanied by a Corruption and populism de- bate moderated by Aleksander Smolar, Foundation President, with the participation of Dr. Tomasz Żukowski, sociologist, Jacek Żakowski, Polityka weekly publicist, prof. Antoni Kamiński, politologist and Piotr Zaremba,
Wprost weekly publicist.
Medical Task Force Since 2001 the Program supports a Medical Task Force focusing on ethics in public health care. In 2004, the Task Force developed a project of regu- lations concerning creation of publicly available waiting lists for the ratio- ned medical services. The project was presented to the Minister of Health and the solutions it proposed were incorporated by the Act on Health Care Institutions adopted by the Parliament. The Task Force also developed a checklist that enables to evaluate draft legislative changes in health care laws with respect to corruption threats, and identified the corruption- -prone areas in the government draft bill for publicly financed health care debated in the Parliament.
Political responsibility of public persons
discussion panel
On April 7, 2004, we organized a discussion regarding the political respon- sibility of public persons. The discussion began with a presentation of the
Impunity of the political class? report authored by Piotr Koryś from the War-
saw University Department of Economics, constituting a review and sum- mary of corruption scandals revealed in recent years in Poland. Dr Richard Jarvis, secretary of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, presented ways to prevent corruption at the highest levels of power in OECD sta- tes, while Prof. Zbigniew Hołda from the Jagiellonian University in Cracow, discussed whether Poland lacks proper legal regulations or, rather, an ap-
propriate culture in public life. Dr. Wojciech Łukowski from the University of Warsaw discussed how to change the prevalent atmosphere of toleran- ce and acceptance of corruption and its perpetrators. A transcript of the di- scussion is available at www.przeciw-korupcji.org.pl.
Legal counsel Since 2000, we have been providing a legal counselling for people who have encountered corruption. In 2004, due to the constantly increasing ca- seload, we invited the network of University Legal Clinics to participate; 7 of the 16 existing clinics agreed to provide legal assistance to clients, whi- le 2 students from the Warsaw University Clinic assist us in the prelimina- ry screening of incoming cases. In 2004, we were asked to help in 132 ca- ses of corruption, as of the end of the year we had helped in 97. The mat- ters in which we intervene frequently require expansive knowledge, inclu- ding in administrative and business law. The following provide us with pro
bono assistance: Andrzej Szeniawski, specialist in local government, Maciej
Łaszczuk, lawyer, business law, and Judge Przemysław Szustakiewicz, pu- blic procurement law.