📋 Tender Overview
Money from the Justice Fund will be distributed on transparent terms to those most in need. Today (May 29, 2024), Minister of Justice Adam Bodnar, Deputy Minister of Justice Zuzanna Rudzi?ska-Bluszcz and Acting Director of the Justice Fund Department Piotr Krasi?ski presented the most important changes, pointed out previous irregularities in the functioning of the Justice Fund and invited to complete a survey that will help determine the directions of activity Fund.
During the press conference, Minister Adam Bodnar informed about the increased use of money from the Justice Fund in specific constituencies where the candidates were Sovereign Poland politicians.
- In our opinion, this information is important from the point of view of what the National Electoral Commission does on a daily basis, but it is also important for us, for society, so that we have a full overview of the situation - said the minister.
The head of the Ministry of Justice said that the investigation of irregularities in the Fund is carried out, among others, by: Central Anticorruption Bureau, the Supreme Audit Office, the National Tax Administration and the Chief Inspector of Financial Information, the Solicitor General's Office of the Republic of Poland and the National Prosecutor's Office , including Investigation Team No.
effects. Similarly, in the ministry, we have recently done titanic work to get this Fund back on its feet, he emphasized.
Deputy Minister Zuzanna Rudzi?ska-Bluszcz spoke about irregularities related to the functioning of the Justice Fund.
- At the beginning of the year, we commissioned an internal audit. This audit showed that 40 percent of the analyzed contracts raise doubts whether the subsidies based on them were granted in accordance with the law. Some of the contracts were analyzed by the Attorney General's Office. As a result of various inspections and analyses, we know that 23 contracts raise serious doubts and are sanctioned as invalid - admitted Deputy Minister Rudzi?ska-Bluszcz. She added that the Ministry of Justice will be able to demand the return of the funds paid.
The deputy minister also announced changes to the regulations regarding the Fund. The main amendment will be the removal of the possibility of arbitrary granting of subsidies by the Minister of Justice. A new department will be created in the ministry - Funds and Free Legal Aid, headed by Piotr Krasi?ski.
Deputy Minister Rudzi?ska-Bluszcz also announced a new competition under the Justice Fund. The subject of this competition will be Children's Help Centers, where interdisciplinary help will be provided to child victims of crime.
Director Piotr Krasi?ski announced that the new competition will enable the creation of aid centers in 10 regions of Poland.
- We focus on making them as specialized and professional as possible. The most important thing is that the centers that will be established will provide children and their families with interdisciplinary help. This is an ambitious plan, but it is highly achievable so that the centers will operate throughout Poland from January 1 next year. They will complement the network already operating today, he said.
The director pointed to the transparency of the terms of the new competition, in which offers will be assessed substantively by external experts, without arbitrary awarding of subsidies. The director also encouraged people to complete the survey (link below), the results of which will help determine the directions of the Fund's activities and assess real needs.
During the conference, Minister Adam Bodnar also announced that the ministry had published an interactive map of subsidies from the Justice Fund granted outside the recruitment procedure.
- By making this map available, we want to show a certain process within which public funds could be spent for purposes that could have a legal basis, could be spent on the basis of paragraph 11 of the Regulation on the Justice Fund, but may raise doubts regarding from an ethical point of view and from the point of view of whether these expenses did not intersect with the expenses and very restrictive rules of financing the election campaign - said Minister Bodnar, adding that he was counting on the analysis of the National Electoral Commission.
The head of the ministry also informed that further applications to waive immunity are being prepared and will relate to subsidies to very specific entities.
