Telephones and IT equipment for the leadership in exchange for contracts
Officers of the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau detained four persons in connection with an investigation into the acceptance of financial benefits by employees of the West Pomeranian Voivodship Roads Administration in Koszalin. The officials breached public finance discipline. Fraudulent VAT invoices are in the background of the case. The investigation is supervised by the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Szczecin.
Officers from the Regional Office of the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau in Szczecin are conducting an investigation into the receiving of material benefits by persons holding public functions between 2015 and 2022. The case involves a thread of fraudulent VAT invoices and the obtaining of unlawful material benefits in the form of IT equipment.
Detrimental Actions Against the Office
The findings of the preparatory proceedings show that officials from the West Pomeranian Voivodeship Roads Management Board (ZZDW) in Koszalin, acting in cooperation and in agreement, exceeded their powers and failed to fulfil their duties through disproportionate and mismanaged spending of public money on services and purchases of IT equipment for the needs of the head office in Koszalin and the 7 subordinate Voivodeship Roads Districts. The amount and value of the provided equipment and services was significantly excessive. Some of the supplies and ordered services were not provided.
The officials also obtained benefits in the form of valuable mobile phones and other IT equipment. The material benefits were camouflaged in fraudulent VAT invoices for the purchase of services and consumables for printing equipment on behalf of ZZDW.
Corruption links interrupted
On 25 June 2024, officers from the Regional Office of the CBA in Szczecin detained four people (two women and two men). The detainees include three officials, including the director of the West Pomeranian Voivodship Roads Administration in Koszalin and an entrepreneur from Kołobrzeg.
Procedural activities were conducted in over a dozen locations in the Zachodniopomorskie, Lubelskie and Podkarpackie Voivodeships, including the headquarters of the West Pomeranian Voivodship Roads Administration in Koszalin, business entities and places of residence of the detainees.
Officers from the Regional Offices of the CBA in Szczecin and Katowice participated in the proceedings and secured accounting documentation and data carriers of evidential value.
Preventive Measures Applied
The detainees were brought to the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Szczecin, where they faced charges.
The three suspects confirmed the findings of the investigation and gave relevant explanations, and the prosecutor applied non-custodial measures against them, i.e. property sureties, police supervision, and suspension of performance of their official duties.
The Director of the Voivodship Roads Administration did not pleaded guilty to the charges against him. The Prosecutor filed a motion for the temporary detention against the suspect. The court did not endorse the motion, indicating that non-custodial measures were sufficient. The Prosecutor issued a decision to suspend the director from his duties at the West Pomeranian Voivodship Roads Administration in Koszalin
CBA appeals – file a voluntary report
This is the first procedural implementation in the ongoing investigation. Further procedural proceedings are planned.
In connection with the ongoing proceedings, the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau informs that persons who have allowed themselves to be entangled in the procedure and have given a financial benefit have the possibility to benefit from the so-called non-criminality clause under Article 229 § 6 of the Penal Code.
According to the Penal Code, the condition for avoiding criminal liability if a financial or personal benefit or the promise thereof has been accepted by a person holding a public function is to voluntarily notify the law enforcement authorities (...).
The culprit must notify the authority before the authority becomes aware of the offence and disclose all relevant circumstances of the offence.
CBA Press Team
