Poland

Polish parliamentary committee to examine banks approved

Warsaw, Poland March 25, 2006 The Polish Sejm has approved a bill that will form a special parliamentary commission to investigate the Polish banks and their activities for the past 17 years.

The investigation is general in nature and broad in scope. The intent is to review all activities by the central bank and all banks in Poland for the past 17 years. There are no specific charges brought against anyone. It appears that the purpose of the commission is to see if anyone did anything wrong.

The Sejm, having been provided four legal opinions, three of which say that the formation of this investigating committee is unconstitutional, voted to approve the formation of the committee even in light of the fact that it is likely to be challenged as unconstitutional.

The president of the National Bank of Poland, Leszek Balcerowicz, stated that this investigation has no precedent in Poland and no precedent in the civilized world.

To some it seems that this investigating committee is more of a mechanism to be used to make personal attacks on some individuals. Samoobrona political party leader hundred Lepper was shown on television gleefully saying that for sure the President of the National Bank of Poland, Leszek Balcerowicz who has long been an enemy of Andrzej Lepper, will be brought before the commission. Andrzej Lepper also gleefully announced that former President Alexander Kwasniewski the will be brought before this commission.

Though there is a great deal of commentary that the commission is unconstitutional, as of this writing, no one has stated that he will submit it to the constitutional tribunal for review.

Classified Polnews