Marek Sowa, KO MP and head of the investigative committee for the so-called visa scandal, announced in an interview with PAP that the committee would send eleven reports to the prosecutor’s office on suspicion of committing crimes by, among others, Mateusz Morawiecki, Zbigniew Rau and Mariusz Kamiński, as well as – a complaint about the “slowness of the procedure” conducted by the Lublin Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Next week, Sowa will present a draft report on the work of the commission of inquiry into the visa scandal. It has 340 pages, plus appendices.
We interviewed 37 witnesses and received the opinions of two experts. There were 40 committee meetings and more than 110 hours of hearings. We received hundreds of files from the public prosecutor’s office and offices
– summarized the head of the committee.
He informed that the commission would send eleven notices to the Public Prosecution Service and one complaint to the National Prosecution Service regarding the delay in the procedure conducted by the Organized Crime Department of Lublin Railway Station. This department is conducting an investigation into paid protection in connection with accelerating visa procedures. The charges include: former deputy head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Piotr Wawrzyk and his colleague Edgar Kobos.
Sowa specified that three reports to the prosecutor’s office will concern irregularities in the Poland Business.Harbour program. He added that the applications to the Public Prosecution Service will include the names of former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, former Minister of Development Jadwiga Emilewicz and former Prime Minister Plenipotentiary for GovTech Justyna Orłowska.
The PBH program included a simplified visa procedure for companies, startups and IT specialists, without the need for a work permit. He was suspended at the end of January.
Who else does Sowa want to report to the public prosecutor’s office?
Four reports – listed Sowa – concern the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ lack of supervision of the visa issuance process, and the exposure of the state budget to financial losses resulting from the renting of real estate for the needs of the Visa Decision Center in Łódź and the Consular Information Center in Kielce, and “assistance in arranging visas, accelerating or circumventing visa procedures at the request of protégés associated with Wawrzyk. In this case – Sowa said – will include former head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Zbigniew Rau, former director general of the foreign service at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maciej Karasiński and former management of the ministry’s consular department at the Public Prosecution Service are submitted by Foreign Affairs Marcin Jakubowski and Beata Brzywczy.
The committee should also submit reports to the prosecutor’s office on the possibility of committing a crime by former deputy minister of agriculture Lech Kołakowski and the director of his parliamentary office, Maciej Lisowski. The work of the Investigative Committee shows that Kołakowski intervened in the issue of visas for people with a work permit issued at the request of an employment agency run by Lisowski. Kołakowski sublet from him a property for a parliamentary office for 50 PLN per month. Lisowski also dealt with Kołakowski’s parliamentary affairs.
Notifications to the Public Prosecution Service will also concern former head of the Ministry of the Interior and Administration Mariusz Kamiński and former head of the CBA Andrzej Stróżny.
This concerns the delay in the procedure, or rather the lack of action, when they received very credible information about criminal proceedings at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in connection with the granting of visas for money. This information was provided to them in July 2022 and despite extensive knowledge, no reconnaissance, analytical or operational activities were initiated until February 2023.
said Owl.
“Each of these conclusions is an accusation.”
He points out that the committee formulates a number of summary conclusions in the draft final report.
Almost every one of these requests is an accusation against the state, which was then led by PiS. Poland has the most deregulated visa policy system of any European country. It was easiest to get a visa here. Poland was a hub where you could get a pass to enter the entire European Union
– Sowa emphasized.
He added that within 4 years, 47 percent of all work visas in the EU were issued by Poland.
In many cases, these people were not interested in entering our country at all. They took advantage of the situation and ease of obtaining a visa in Poland to go directly to the destination country
– noted the head of the committee.
Committee members have until December 3 to submit amendments to the draft report. The committee will then debate the format of the report and vote on the amendments on December 3. MPs can submit dissenting opinions on the report until December 6. After this date, the report will be sent to the Chairman of the Sejm, Szymon Hołownia, who will decide on the date on which the report will be presented at the plenary meeting of the Sejm.
This is interesting because in April this year, Chairman Sowa was present at the committee meeting in which Mariusz Kamiński, former head of the Ministry of the Interior and Administration, was questioned. The PiS politician not only laughed heartily by exposing the incompetence of the then chairman of the committee, Michał Szczerba, but also carefully described the activities of the ministry he headed until 2023 in response to the first reports of irregularities regarding to visas. Most of the people with whom Sowa wants to confront the bondarists have shown before the committee how much the then opposition, and the majority today, has exaggerated the issue of visas. I wonder who will one day deal with the shocking stories about ‘stalls’ in front of consulates.
yes/DAD
Source: wPolityce