Practise Report Twinning Contract Strengthening of the process of implementation of the anti-corruption activities in Poland
1. Introduction: Poland policy developments in the sector
Within the recent years, a series of important changes aimed at strengthening the anti-corruption legislation has been introduced into the Polish legal system. They are, among others: the law on countering the introduction to the financial circulation of the assets coming from illegal or undisclosed sources, new public procurement law, the law on the access to the public information, new electoral law and the law on political parties, law on responsibility of corporate entities as well as several important amendments and new anti-corruption provisions introduced to the penal code. Moreover, Poland has ratified the most important international agreements concerning combating corruption: Criminal Law Convention on Corruption, Civil Law Convention on Corruption, OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions.
A series of legal changes has also been introduced in order to enable international co-operation and legal assistance in combating corruption.
Despite the introduction of numerous legal regulations, the problem of corruption still persists and it concerns the majority of areas of public life.
So far, the MIA, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Finance, the Public Procurement Office, the Ministry of Health, the Police Headquarters, the Border Guard Headquarters has realised the tasks within the framework of the Anti-corruption Strategy, which caused adaptation of many new – and supplementation of the existing – legislative acts, establishment of the units responsible for fighting corruption and for taking many initiatives in order to fight corruption.
In scope of the legislative changes 71 legislative acts were passed, accepted and issued.
There are also currently works on other 13 acts. In scope of educational and training activities 12 training courses are completed, more than 3 thousand people trained, 8 Ethical Codes for the employees of specific offices issued. Regardless of the above, the brochures and information guides had been issued e.g. “The corruption crimes in light of the new criminal regulations” in the Police Headquarters. In scope of the educational and training activities the competitions were organised and the programmes prepared in individual ministries. In scope of the organisational changes the suitable departments and teams, competent to fight corruption and to monitor the anti-corruption activities, were formed in 12 offices.
2. Twinning Project Background: Component 1: Civil Service Office
Promoting codes of professional ethics should become an important factor in shaping positive role models – as an element having an impact on increasing the ethical level of public institutions. Professional ethics facilitates doing a given job, influences its prestige, provides social guidelines, sets and justifies the limits of deviation from universal standards, makes duties generally considered special in some cases be treated as basic.
Thanks to an efficient and well-thought-out internal policy, the ethical level of a given institution is determined. If a public institution wants to be seen as competent and efficient, it must be ready to pursue a long-term ethics policy, which is a tool for constructing a culture of ethics.
One of the urgent tasks in the Polish public service is also to translate the solutions concerning the Civil Service Corps onto the level of local self-governments and to form a corps of self-government civil servants, which will limit local civil servants’ involvement in politics and increase their competence.
An essential factor ensuring the effectiveness of system solutions is the cooperation of politicians, including local politicians, civil servants and self-government civil servants, non-governmental organizations and media. All the actions taken should be directed towards changing the social atmosphere around the phenomenon of corruption through education, by developing awareness in the society that corruptive behaviors are unethical and by promoting attitudes of no consent for such situations.
3. Strengthening of anti-corruption activities within the Civil Service - Table of ActivitiesSub-Component 1.1 / Strengthening the preventive anti-corruption activities within the Civil Service
Activity 1.1.1 / Analysis of the current situation in Civil Service Offices and 9 Voivod Offices
Joint analysis of legislation, existing ethic codes, the situation of corruption in the Civil Service incl. Voivods, as well as drafting and adapting of concrete training plans. / Analysis of current situation completed
Training and Project plans for Civil Service drafted and agreed / Project plan
Training plans
Workshop minutes including attendance list / Legwork needed concerning the preparation of laws and ethic codes
Activity 1.1.2. / Training on strategies for gathering information, incl. best practice examples on prevention – workshops for high level officials
Workshops aimed at identifying the real sources of corruption (additional information on legislation and mechanisms favouring the acts of corruption) / Workshops for 60 high level officers have been carried out
Corruption favouring factors are recognised
Legal and organisational regulations and their impact on corruption are identified / Training reports and evaluation including attendance list
Translated training materials provided / Support of the Civil Service and other relevant governmental bodies
Adequate training facilities and enough participants for the training made available by the Civil Service
Activity 1.1.3 / Training courses enhancing the public awareness
Training courses enhancing the public awareness of corruption and promoting ethical standards of conduct among high level officials / Training Courses with 60 high level officers have been carried out
Translated training materials provided / Reports and evaluation of training including attendance list
Training materials / Training facilities available
Activity 1.1.4 / Assisting in development of a Local Programme of Prevention
Assistance of drafting of a Local Corruption Prevention Programme. / Workshops have been carried out / drafts of Local Prevention Programmes / The participants have attended the previous workshops.
Sub-Component 1.2 / Strengthening the anti-corruption activities within 9 Voivod Offices
Training of high level officials from 9 Voivod offices aimed at enhancing ethical standards, solving the ethical dilemmas and disseminating the Civil Service Ethics Code standards / Awareness concerning Corruption and Ethics is increased
450 high level officials have been trained / Reports and evaluation of training including attendance list / Trained personnel remain in the service
Sufficient Polish staff and stakeholders available for trainings
MS project management has obtained commitment from selected experts and / or their organizations and has made arrangements for adequate replacement, if for unforeseen reasons, the pre-selected experts are suddenly not available.
Activity 1.2.1 / Training of 150 representatives (high level officials) of the Voivod Offices Mazowieckie, Lubelskieand Podlaskie
Training and exchange of experience in the above mentioned topics as well as the preparation of checklists/ a manual for handling cases of corruption will be provided. / Training and exchange of experience have been carried out
Checklists/Manual provided
Translated training materials provided / Reports and evaluation of training including attendance list
checklists / Support of the Civil Service and Voivods
Adequate training facilities and enough participants for the training made available by the Civil Service/Voivods
Activity 1.2.2 / Training of 150 representatives (high level officials) of the Voivod Offices Wielkopolskie, Zachodniopomorskie and Lubuskie
Training and exchange of experience in the above mentioned topics as well as the preparation of checklists/ a manual for handling cases of corruption will be provided. / Training and exchange of experience have been carried out
Checklists/Manual provided
Translated training materials provided / Reports and evaluation of training including attendance list
checklists / Support of the Civil Service and Voivods
Adequate training facilities and enough participants for the training made available by the Civil Service/Voivods
Activity 1.2.3 / Training of 150 representatives (high level officials) of the Voivod Offices Dolnośląskie, Opolskie and Śląskie
Training and exchange of experience in the above mentioned topics as well as the preparation of checklists/ a manual for handling cases of corruption will be provided. / Training and exchange of experience have been carried out
Checklists/Manual provided
Translated training materials provided / Reports and evaluation of training including attendance list
checklists / Support of the Civil Service and Voivods
Adequate training facilities and enough participants for the training made available by the Civil Service/Voivods
Activity 1.2.4. / Elaborating a checklist/manual for handling corruption cases in Voivodships
Workshop on drafting recommendations prepared by staff members of the 9 Voivodships are combined into a general manual. / General Manual provided / Reports and evaluation of workshop including attendance list
Manual / The participants have attended the previous workshops.
4. Targets, Methods and Outputs of Component 1
Component 1
Strengthening of anti-corruption activities within the Civil Service
60 high level officials from governmental administrations and 450 high level officials from 9 Voivod offices will be acquainted with a wide-range of concepts of ethics in business and public administration, internal ethical regulations, conflict of interests, lobbying , mechanisms of corruption as well as identifying the real sources of the acts of corruption. At the end of the project the
- Training among the high level officials will be completed
- Complete information on regulations and mechanisms favourable to corruption and functioning in the various areas of public life recognised
- Information on ethical and corruption issues among high level officials in self-governmental institutions disseminated
- Staff from 9 Voivod offices will be familiarised with the above mentioned topics
Sub-Component 1.1
Strengthening the preventive anti-corruption activities within the Civil Service
Activity 1.1.1
Analysis of current situation at Civil Service Office and Voivod Offices
Method
As the basic for the following activities within this Component a general overview of the current legal status on corruption cases and the previous anti-corruption measures in the Civil Service will be carried out, focusing especially on the following categories:
- Civil Service Law (Central and sub-government levels)
- Penal Law
- Lobbying
- Existing ethical codes, guidelines for ethical behaviour, manuals for handling corruption cases
- Anti-corruption strategies
- Organisational questions
As one result of this analysis, concrete training plans for the further activities will be drafted and adapted.
Final Output
- Analysis of current situation completed
- Training and Project plans for Civil Service drafted and agreed
Activity 1.1.2
Training on strategies for gathering information, incl. best practice examples on prevention - workshops for high level officials
Method
6 Seminars/Workshops for 10 participants (chosen by their Director General) each (2 days each)
2 seminars will be carried out in one calendar week; 1 day for pre- and post-processing of these two seminars. Therefore the six Seminars/Workshops will be carried out in three calendar weeks (15 days).
To guarantee an intensive exchange of experience and to cover all possible topics in these seminars/workshops, each of them will be conducted by 2 German experts.
è 30 expert days
In a mixture of seminar and workshop the target group of high level officials will be acquainted with identifying the real sources of the acts of corruption (additional information on legislation and mechanisms favouring the acts of corruption)
Against the background of existing Polish anti-corruption strategies „best practice tools“ for combating and preventing corruption are presented and explained, incl. reports on EU experiences with Germany as an example. Different possibilities of effective corruption prevention are presented, their advantages and disadvantages discussed and adjusted to the Polish partners’ needs.
More details of the training will be defined on the basis of Situation Analysis (1.1.1)
Final Output
- Series of Workshops for 60 high level officers have been carried out.
- Corruption favouring factors are recognised.
- Legal and organisational regulations and their impact on corruption are identified.
Activity 1.1.3
Training courses enhancing the public awareness
Method
As sequel to activity 1.1.2 the same participants will be trained in 3 workshops with 20 participants each for 2 days each; pre- and post-processing 1 day
These workshops will be conducted by 2 German Experts, one responsible for “enhancing public awareness/outreach and so on”, the other one for the “corruption related themes”.
è 6 expert days/ workshop = 18 expert days / 3 workshops
The participants will be trained to enhance the public awareness relating to corruption and to promote ethical standards of conduct among high level officials.
Possible measures for an effective outreach will be presented.
Workshop topics will be:
- A wide-range of concepts of ethics in business and public administration,
- Internal ethical regulations,
- Conflicts of interests,
- Lobbying,
- Mechanisms of corruption
- Strategies for public relation
Final Output
- Training Courses with 60 high level officers have been carried out
- Translated training materials provided
Activity 1.1.4
Assisting in development of a Local Programme of Prevention
Method
As final activity within this subcomponent 3 workshops with 20 participants each for 2 days will be carried out. Additionally to the participants from “Civil Service” representatives of Police and Voivodships will be involved in these Workshops.
These workshops will be conducted by the German CL. She will be responsible for the pre- and postproccessing of the workshops (2 days per workshop) and will accompany them. For demonstrating the benefits of role-playing and for introducing their experiences from the trainings in the Voivodships (subcomponent 1.2) 2 Experts of DBB Academy will also attend in these workshops (1 day per workshop; pre- and post-processing 1day)
Based on insights and results gained during the above mentioned workshops the beginnings of a Local Corruption Prevention Programme are drafted together with the previous participants. The programme wants to draw the general public’s attention to the fight against corruption by pointing out its harmful effects for the whole of society. Possibilities of co-operation on Voivodship-level will be discussed with participating representatives. Measures and first positive outcomes are presented.
The benefits of role-playing are demonstrated with acting out realistic confrontations with everyday corruption and the use of appropriate counter-measures
Final Output
- Workshops have been carried out
Sub-Component 1.2
Strengthening the anti-corruption activities within 9 Voivod Offices
Method
Altogether 450 Officials (chosen by their Director General) out of the following 9 Voivodships will be trained: