GOVERNMENT

Text by: Michail Bartoszewicz
University of Wroclaw, October 2001

The political system in Poland is founded on the division of powers: legislative, executive and judicative (under communism the first one was formally the highest). This does not mean that the three powers are strictly separated one from another, but that neither of them can dominate the others, for they are mutually controlling. A good example here is the parliamentary responsibility of the ministers. Another example is the ban of joining certain positions in legislative and executive sphere (this ban is not ultimate, however, since members of the Sejm (the lower house of Parliament) are allowed to be ministers or secretaries of state).

The Constitutional name of the Cabinet is the Council of Ministers (Rada Ministrów). This body consists of the Premier, the vice-Premier(s), the Ministers and the chiefs of special committees. The constitutional position of the Cabinet is relatively strong. As a rule, the Council of Ministers deals with issues not reserved for the other State bodies or local government.

The Chief of government in Poland is the Prime Minister who, along with ministers who make up the Cabinet, is directly involved in governing. Although the President and the Parliament influence everyday politics, designing its basic aims, issuing legislation to achieve them, initiating public debates, personnel policy etc. it is the Prime Minister and his Cabinet who are mostly involved in conducting both internal affairs and foreign policy which means making most of the concrete decisions.

One of the main spheres of the Council of Ministers activities is economic policy. This is especially clear as far as the State budget is concerned. The Council of Ministers only is allowed to issue a draft of the budget or any project changing it. The Sejm, the Senate and any other bodies can not initiate budget changes. Additionally the size of the budget deficit decided on by the Cabinet cannot be increased by parliamentary procedure. Practically this means that the Parliament can only lower or raise some income and expenditures that do not alter the basic assumptions of the budget submitted to them by the Council of Ministers. The Council's domination is expressed also in its ability to shorten the term of proceeding the budget compared to other statutes. The Sejm is obliged to finish its work within the period of 4 months from when the Council of Ministers has issued the proposed budget or the President can dissolve the Parliament (both the Sejm and the Senate). It is worth mentioning that the President has to sign the budget within 7 days of it having been presented to him by the Speaker of the Parliament. The President is not allowed to veto budget act.

The Constitution of Poland of April 2,1997 has changed the rules concerning the way of appointing the Premier and creating the Council of Ministers. Under the new law the process is undoubtedly more effective than it was before, which lessens the risk of seriosu political crisis. Therefore the Constitution introduces only two "emergency" procedures for appointing the Premier and creating the Council of Ministries. The most important of these is if the political majority in the Sejm twice fails to create the Cabinet, it is the President who will take initiative. The Premier and the Cabinet appointed by him should then be granted the Sejm's vote of confidence. Otherwise the President will shorten parliamentary session of the Sejm and order a new election.

Prime Minister

The Prime Minister and the Cabinet dominates in solving current affairs and managing policy. However, The Premier's political position is changeable and depends not only on the constitutional system. The significance of the Premier is connected with party relations (e.g. the number of parties in coalition), relations between the Sejm and government and last but not least with the Premier's personal character. The past premiers (since the year 1989) have performed their duties for differing periods of time. In the case of Jan Krzysztof Bielecki, Jan Olszewski, Hanna Suchocka and Józef Oleksy, each of them governed approximately for one year or even shorter. Each of them faced serious political problems like conflicts between different parties, weakening the Premier's position. The first non-communistic Premier - Tadeusz Mazowiecki governed only 15 months (until he lost in presidential elections), but he had remarkable authority. The Present Premier - Prof. Jerzy Buzek is the "longest-term" chief of the Cabinet since 1989. In spite of that he was perceived as a rather weak Premier. After the Parliamentary elections 2001 the leader of Democratic Left Alliance Lezek Miller was appointed as prime minister.

This authority according to Constitution is very strong and wider than it was before. For example the Premier:

manages the work of the Council of Ministers and represents it;
issues regulations (understatutory acts based on statutes);
countersigns certain acts of the President;
coordinates and controls ministers' works;
determines for some ministers their scope of activities;
judges (deciding) in cases of ministrial disputes about the scope of their activities;
gives account to the President when dismissing a minister and other persons;
establishes and dissolves ministries and other governmental committees;
supervises directly certain governmental offices (for example Office of State Protection (Urzad Ochrony Panstwa, Office of Public Procurement (Urzad Zamówien Publicznych), Office of Civil Service (Urzad Sluzby Cywilnej);
exercises supervision of local administration;
is the official superior of employees in the government administration.

Some of teose competences, like coordination and controlling of the government, the Prime Minister uses almost permanently, some others - quite often (e.g. the one of issuing legislation), whereas the budget competences or the ones of overlooking local administration are used rather seldom (the latter is ordinarily supervised by voivodes (wojewodowie), while the Premier's supervision is extraordinary).

It is worth mentioning, that the Prime Minister not only coordinates the other ministers' works but he also possesses (based on the Constitution and statutes) discretional power in specific fields. However, if the Prime Minister exceeds this power he or she must answer to the Tribunal of the State, plus of course they have a permanent responsibility to the Sejm.

In the past there have been some attempts at initiating the processes of trial by the Tribunal against several former premiers and ministers, for example the former premier M. F. Rakowski (accused of the Gdansk Shipyard bankruptcy), min. M. Belka (accused of delaying a draft of the budget), and min. J. Lewandowski (accused of some mistakes during the privatisation). All these trials, however, were unsuccessful. Nevertheless every minister has to bear in mind his accountability to the Tribunal of the State.

Ministers

According to the Constitution there are two types of ministers: the ones who lead a certain branch of government administration and the so-called ministers without portfolio. All of them are members of the Council of Ministers, but only the first ones can issue understatutory acts (regulations). Ministers without portfolio are rare exceptions in Poland. As a rule ministers propose to the Premier their "vices" (secretaries and undersecretaries of state). The ministers are usually appointed by the President together with the whole Cabinet. This appointment has to obtain a vote of confidence by the Sejm. Ministers are cancelled in case of:

Sejm's vote of no confidence in the Council of Ministers,
Sejm's vote of no confidence in an individual Minister,

Except in the above case only the President at the request of the Prime Minister, shall effect changes in the composition of the Council of Ministers. (In this case the Sejm's acceptance is not required).

Ministries

All the ministries have basically the same double structure: political ministers and vice-ministers as well as their own political cabinet on the one hand and politically neutral, impartial civil servants (officials) on the other. Unfortunately there is a widespread opinion in Poland that the officials - according to the rule "winner takes all" - are also politically engaged. It would seems however, that the officials of the lower and medium level are mostly politically neutral. Usually ministries consist of ten or more departments (each divided on 2-4 sections) headed by directors. The most important departments are: legal, financial, European integration public procurement and information (press).

Today there are 18 ministries in Poland managed by ministers. The ones who deal with the most strategic issues and decisions are:

Minister of Finance - this position is strictly connected with work on the budget and creating long-term economic programs and prognoses. The Minister of finance also supervises the tax administration and customs and plays important role in making decisions as to the Treasury of State guarantees. This minister also counteracts the passing of "dirty money" into the financial circulation. This is probably the most criticized minister regardless of who personally occupies the position. As late as one month before the 2001 Parliamentary election the Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek dismissed minister Jaroslaw Bauc who was replaced by his deputy Halina Wasilewska-Trenkner,
Minister of Foreign Affairs - whose scope of activities is very similar to that in other countries, apart that Minister of Foreign Affairs in Poland is probably more engaged in international economic relations than is normal. This position is traditionally occupied by politicians of considerable authority (like A. Olechowski, B. Geremek, W. Bartoszewski),
Minister of Interior and Administration supervises bodies such as the Police, the Fire Brigades, and the Border Guard. The minister also deals with administrative matters including personnel policy - e.g. the Premier appoints voivodship governors on the Minister of Interior's suggestion. The Minister deals with migration matters. The Minister is also involved in assigning some concessions or approving the selling certain immovable assets to foreigners and hence plays an important role in certain economic subjects.
Minister of Economy - like the Minister of Finance works on long-term economic programs and forecasts. This minister is also responsible for restructuring of old industries, like the mining industry and metallurgy. Recently the Minister has also dealt with tourism. This minister supervises the Office of Energy Regulation, Polish Tourist Organization, Institute of Tourism in Warsaw and many other scientific institutes (141 organizations altogether),
Minister of the Treasury substitutes for the Treasury in legal matters. This minister is responsible for privatisation, reprivatisation and supervising those companies, which still belong to the State (officials from this ministry sit in many of their supervising councils.) He/she also supervises the Agricultural Property Agency of the State Treasury and Agency of the Army Properties. The activities of this minister have often caused much criticism. In the cabinet of Jerzy Buzek (1997-2001) this "politically dangerous" position was occupied by three persons one after another,
Minister of Agriculture is responsible for restructuring of Polish agriculture, which still employs over 20 % of the country's population. Within the office there is a department of pre-accesion assistance from the EU in the field of the agriculture. This minister also supervises many scientific institutes and governmental agencies (e.g. Agency for Restructurization and Modernization of Agriculture, Agricultural Market Agency),
Minister of Environment is responsible for the proper usage of pre-accesion assistance from the EU in the field of protection of the environment and for reducing pollution. His policy is often criticized by ecological organizations (e.g. recently dismissing the chief of the Tatra National Park),
Minister of Communication is responsible amongst other things for the demonopolisation of the telecommunication market.

The ministers not mentioned above - of education, culture, health - are traditionally under-financed. Therefore, they lack proper instruments to play really significant roles in these important areas. It is worth noting that the number of ministers and ministries in Poland is not strictly defined. The Constitution mentions by name only few of them - National Defence, Foreign Affairs, Justice. Therefore the government's organization depends to a large degree on the Prime Minister's discretion.

Apart from ministers and their ministries there are also very important "non-ministry" state offices, like:

Committee for European Integration (UKIE) - this office is responsible for the negotiations between Poland and European Union, harmonization of the Polish legal system with European standards, current contacts with the European Commission, analyses and coordination of pre-accession funds;
Office of State Protection (UOP) - it is the Polish equivalent of such institutions like CIA or KGB. For instance it can fight against the most serious crimes. UOP is supervised directly by the Prime Minister;
Office of Public Procurement (UZP) - plays important role in relations between public and private sectors in cases when public institutions want to purchase certain works, services etc from the private ones. It is the highest institution in this field, which in certain circumstances gives allowance on exceptions from binding some statutory procedures or rules (i.e. home preferences rule);
Office for Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) which is the main anti-monopoly organ. This office often has often fought against monopoly practices, especially in the telecommunication, transportation and energy industries.

Governmental funds and agencies

Approximately 50 percent of public finances in Poland go through different State funds and agencies. The fact that they play such a great role in the administrative field along with their financial welfare causes a lot of general criticism. In 1999 minister of finance proposed to abolish a significant number of those funds and agencies. His proposal, however, was not supported by the political majority in the Parliament. In fact, the strong position of these bodies limits in many ways the role of public administration (both central and local) and makes the state budget incomes smaller.

There are a huge number of those funds and agencies. As a rule they are created by a means of statute, and stay under ministerial supervision. This supervision though is often insufficient. Some of those funds are strictly connected with the economic transformation of the country and its integration with the EU. However, there is still a dilemma: should they act in these fields or should their tasks be transferred to local administration? Facing of 2001 state budget deficit, a lot of proposals have been set forward to cut the number of those funds and agencies.

The most important are:

Social Insurance Fund (Fundusz Ubezpieczen Spolecznych - FUS). This is the biggest central fund. Each employer is obliged to pay to it over 40% of wages of his employees. Such incomes should be sufficient to secure means for the retired and pensioners, but in fact FUS is subsidized from the state budget. FUS also pays sickness benefits and transfers fees of a considerale number of employees to private retirement funds.

Agency for Restructurization and Modernization of Agriculture (Agencja Restrukturyzacji i Modernizacji Rolnictwa). This is a government institution who's mission is to support actions aimed at accelerating structural changes in agriculture and rural areas. It supports investment in agriculture, agri-food industry and services for agriculture, it supports the creation of new jobs for rural people outside farming, the development of technical infrastructure in rural areas and the improvement of the agrarian structure. The Agency is also active in the sphere of education and agricultural training. The Agency was appointed a payer of finances from the European fund for agriculture - SAPARD.

The Agricultural Property Agency of the State Treasury (Agencja Nieruchomosci Rolnych Skarbu Panstwa). The Agency has been obliged to take over all the property of liquidated state-owned farms (quasi-kowchozes) and other agricultural real estate of the State Treasury as well as realty from the National Land Fund. This agency operates for the Treasury in the administration of national agricultural immovable assets. Most of these immovable assets have been already sold or rented to private investors. But those unsold are probably the biggest farms in Poland.

Agricultural Market Agency (Agencja Rynku Rolnego). Because prices of agricultural products are very unstable (especially the corn and meat) it is necessary to moderate them. Therefore the Agency carries out interventional purchase or sales according to need. For example, usually in summer and autumn it purchases corn. This Agency is subsidized from the state budget every year.

National Fund of Environment Protection and Water Management (Narodowy Fundusz Ochrony Srodowiska i Gospodarki Wodnej). This fund is mainly involved in environmental projects. It makes low-percentage credits and loans for these purposes for both private and public investors (for example local administration). The Income of this fund come primarily from fines for environmental law infractions. It is not subsidized from the state budget.

State Fund Rehabilitation of the Disabled (Panstwowy Fundusz Rehabilitacji Osób Niepelnosprawnych). This fund is to help in rehabilitation and employment of the disabled. For instance it gives "low-percent" loans for opening new businesses (in trade, services, agriculture) by the disabled or for restarting a former enterprise. By law, every employer who employs over 24 employees has to pay fees to this Fund, unless the disabled make at least 6 % of their staff. On the other hand employers of the disabled are given subsidies from the Fund to cover their wages and insurance fees. Activities of this fund were often criticised (also by state control audit) for uneconomic management.

Agency of the Army Properties (Agencja Mienia Wojskowego). This agency is plenipotentiary of the Treasury in administration of properties (immovables and movables), which under communism used to serve the Army needs. Nowadays these properties are practically needless but administration of them consumes large sums. That is why they are sold to private investors and local administration (gminas).

Polish Agency for Development of Enterprise (Polska Agencja Rozwoju Przedsiebiorczosci). This is a new organisation (established on January the 1st, 2001), supervised by the Minister of Economy. This Agency is to help small and medium businesses in their development, especially through supporting export of their products and services. The Agency deals mainly with counselling and gives expertise for managers. It also spreads information on Polish enterprises (e.g. by issuing publications) and finances related activities of other bodies.