"The Justice Fund affair". The chief accountant of the ministry of justice plunges Ziobra and Wosia before the committee of inquiry

Michał Woś called and asked if I would be on the committee present – she told the chief accountant at the Ministry of Justice Elżbieta Pińciurek before the Pegasus committee. She stated that no 1 in her department knew what the Justice Fund would spend on. She besides testified that the individual liable for verifying what funds were spent on the fund was his representative, the Minister of Justice.

On Friday afternoon, Deputy manager of the Department of Budgets and Financial Efficiency, Elżbieta Pinciurek, faced the Pegasus Investigative Committee. Pińciuk chose to exercise the right to free speech.

At first, she presented the responsibilities of the Department of Budget and Financial Efficiency, pointing out that they were linked to the subject substance examined by the committee.

In addition, she discussed the budget department under her supervision.

– The main tasks are the organisation and management of the budgetary planning process in the Justice Ministry and the improvement of the state budget and European resources in the parts where the Minister of Justice is the trustee – explained Pińciuk.

– It is up to the budget department to supply services to the Minister of Justice, as a typical of 2 parts of the state budget, that is, part 15 of the common courts and part 37 of the justice. She said.

As has been explained, the Minister's staff are tasked with creating draft budgetary plans for the areas mentioned above and budget projects for national and European funds.

– The draft plans are forwarded to the Ministry of Finance. all year we besides update the state's multi-annual financial plan on the part of the budget allocated to the ministry," she stressed.

As previously reported by the president of the enquiry committee Magdalena Magoka (PSL-TD), Pinciurek dealt with the settlement of the Justice Fund in the Ministry of Justice.

Pin: Woś called and asked if I would attest present

Pinciurek stated that in 2017 a study from the Department of household Affairs and Minorities concerning the revision of the Financial Plan of the Justice Fund was received in the department. As she explained, this amendment resulted from the amendment of the Criminal Code.

Magdalena Magoka, chair of the committee, asked her what function she played in the preparation of this plan.

Has anyone talked to you about presenting PLN 25 million as “other tasks” in the plan? – asked Magpie.

– In the department, we adopted the sizes that were presented to us. We did not find any irregularities in accounting terms – Pińcierek replied.

When asked if she knew what the funds would be for, she denied saying, "We did not have specified knowledge, we only had a proposal and an explanation concerning the reason for the change of plan."

When asked if erstwhile Deputy Minister of Justice Michał Woś, a politician of the Sovereign Poland and a associate of the PiS Club, had contacted her before the proceeding at which the CBA's request was transferred PLN 25 million from the Justice Fund, she replied: "Yes, he called and asked if I would be on the committee today." “The minister calmed me down due to the fact that I was very stressed,” she added.

Tomasz Trela, Vice-Chair of the Committee of Investigation for Pegasus on the Left, asked Pińcierek if she had had a gathering with Wosa before the hearing.

Pińciek replied that he only contacted her by telephone before questioning. “I haven’t seen him,” she added. erstwhile asked if Woś gave her instructions before questioning, she denied it. No, I'm on the basis of the papers we have here, I say. Without any proxy, just like that, after the accountant," Pińciuk said.

When she was asked whether, following the change in the financial plan of the Justice Fund and the transfer of PLN 25 million, she was curious in the further allocation of these funds, whether she checked for what they were spent on, whether the programme was purchased, or whether it was settled, she replied negatively, stating that it was not in her competence.

Trela asked for confirmation that PLN 25 million was not donated as a intent grant. Pincierek confirmed: “It was not a intent grant”.

The Vice-President of the Commission then recalled a letter dated February 15, 2018 by Wosi to the manager of the Finance Office in the Justice Ministry, Jarosław Wyżgowski, in which the Deputy Minister informed that "the peculiar subsidy from the funds received from the Justice Fund, the Fund for Harmful Assistance and Postpenitentiary Assistance" had been "settled in full".

Trela noted in this connection that "such a document, with specified a statement, is simply a paper that actually confirms the truth".

– Well, it's not a intent grant," said Pińciuk.

In March before the committee of inquiry, Krzysztof Kwiatkowski, erstwhile NIK president, presented a paper addressed to the minister of justice at the time, which shows that Ernest Bejda, then head of the CBA, requested “the transfer of the agreed amount to the CBA to carry out the task of purchasing peculiar measures to detect and prevent crime”.

Pinciurek: the individual liable for verifying what funds have been spent is the Minister of Justice

When Pińciurek was asked who checked whether funds from the Justice Fund were actually spent to counter the consequences of crime, she replied: “The fund’s trustee is liable for the management of the peculiar intent fund”.

When asked who was then the trustee of the fund, she explained that he was the Minister of Justice.

– On the another hand, there was a division of competences resulting from the regulations," she added.

– Was minister Michał Woś the authorising officer (wice – ed.) then? – asked Vice-President Paweł Sliz (Poland 2050–TD). “It follows from the Rules of Procedure that these competences have been transferred to whom,” replied the bookkeeper.

When asked whether, after the publication of the study of the NIK, which revealed that there had been irregularities, as a consequence of which 25 million zlotys were transferred from the FS to the CBA, she replied: “No. I don't remember having any meetings about it." She added that there were no mistakes on the side of the plan.