The Prosecutor's Office is already explaining what contracts and activities are related to the company of the senator of the Law and Justice Club, Mieczyslaw Golba. It concerns the activities during the PiS rule in Rzeszów prison and the findings of the journalists of the TVN24 program “Black and White”. As the Minister of Justice Adam Bodnar writes, “it is necessary to explain to the public how a colleague of the party got the opportunity to run a profitable business with the money of the state”.
Investigators began to investigate the contracts and activities of Senator Mieczysław Golba's company in Rzeszow prison. This is the result of the “Black and White” report on TVN24.
– (Investigation – ed.) is related to the crime under Article 231 of the Criminal Code, that is, abuse of the powers of public officials, – says Janusz Kowalski from the Krakow Regional Prosecutor's Office.
As part of the prisoners' work program – during the PiS government – the senator's company rented the newly built halls of the Rzeszów prison on preferential terms. It was supposed to employ up to six hundred inmates there, but ended up employing a few dozen. Finally, also during the PiS government, the agreement was annexed. – 30 people were employed instead of 600 prisoners, – reports Deputy Minister of Justice Maria Eichart.
The state spent 35 million sums on the construction of the halls. – One job for prisoners cost us PLN 1 million, says Maria Eichart.
WATCH on TVN24 GO: Senator Golba's Golden Arrows The Prison Service reported to the prosecutor's office “the possibility of committing a crime against the public treasury” and Minister Bodnar wrote on the Internet that “it is necessary to explain to the public how a party businessman can found that he could run a profitable business with the state money, and then what happened to this money.
What do the representatives of the previous government say about this? – I am sure that Senator (Golba – ed.) there was absolutely no deviation or violation of the regulations – explains Michal Wojcik, a lawyer of law and justice and former deputy minister of justice.
What did the PiS program mean?
The Prisoner Labor Program, which was launched during the PiS government, provided for the creation of workplaces for convicts – production halls and warehouses – at the expense of state money. Businessmen rent them, employ prisoners there, and receive part of their wages from the state. The assumption is correct, but the current authorities claim that there were “a series of violations” in the program. The point is that although other people also wanted to, the company of a politician from the former Solidarna Polska, currently PiS, entered the prison in Rzeszow.
– This is the expropriation of the prison system in order to obtain funds for the maintenance of the party and its apparatus, – explains the former general director of the Prison Service, Pavel Mochydlovsky.
Many uncertainties surround the career of Senator Mieczyslaw Golba TVN Fact
Michal Vos was then a deputy minister in Zbigniew Ziobro's ministry and oversaw the prison system.
In Rzeszow, under the rule of law and justice, the PiS politician's company received a lucrative contract, and when it became clear that it could not handle six hundred prisoners, the contract was annexed within PiS. And when it was already clear that PiS would lose the election, an agreement was signed that would compensate the company if the contract was terminated until its end, i.e. within twelve years.
– This is an incredible sense of impunity, because it was believed that Minister Ziobro can do everything, – concludes Pawel Mochydlowski.
Main photo source: tvn24
