Millions of grants from ARMiR for bribes
The officers of the CBA Regional Office in Poznań detained another two persons who handed bribes to the employees of the Investment Support Office of the Wielkopolska Regional Branch of the Agency for Restructuring and Modernization of Agriculture in Poznań. For 10,000 zł they were to gain illegal aid in obtaining financial subsidies for investment activities that were covered by the Rural Development Program for years 2007-2013 and 2014-2020. The grants were allocated under the "Modernization of farms" and "Bonus for young farmers" projects. The CBA officers from Poznań searched the apartments of detained persons. Documentations and data carriers were secured there. Detainees will hear charges in the District Prosecutor's Office in Poznań.
In February 2018, as a result of the first realization of the case, agents from the Poznań CBA Regional Office detained the former head of division and former chief specialist from the Wielkopolska Agency for Restructuring and Modernization of Agriculture. The owner of a private agricultural advisory center also came into their hands.
The whole procedure of actions to the detriment of the Treasury was disclosed. The clerks were to watch over 100% of positive applications for financial benefits - they were actively involved in the development and completion of documentation, and they even corrected errors by replacing documents. In turn, the agricultural adviser "arranged" for applicants a certificate of completion of the necessary training. It was found that the total amount of illegally obtained grants amounts to 5.4 million zł. The three persons detained by the CBA then heard corruption charges and the court applied a preventive measure in the form of temporary detention.
The Central Anticorruption Bureau informs farmers who, as a result of the corruption proposals submitted to them, have been entangled in this procedure and who handed over a financial benefit - there is a possibility to use the so-called unpunishability clause resulting from art. 229 para. 6 Penal Code.
Pursuant to the Penal Code, the condition of avoiding criminal liability, if the financial or personal benefit or their promise was accepted by a person holding a public function, is a voluntary notification of law enforcement authorities - in this case the Regional Offices of the CBA in Poznań or the District Prosecutor's Office in Poznań. The perpetrator must inform the authority about this fact before the authority has learned about it and disclose all the relevant circumstances of the offense.