It is the fourth time the Central Anticorruption Bureau has opened the International Anticorruption Day. The 4th International Anticorruption Conference has been organised in cooperation with the Public Procurement Office and the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection. The session was held in the building of the Polish Sejm.
The motto of this year’s conference was ”The role of public sector officials in identifying public procurement irregularities”. During working meetings the invited guests debated among others on the responsibility of group entities in anticorruption activities. Representatives of the German Federal Cartel Office, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Polish Office of Competition and Consumer Protection shared their opinions on the fight against tender collusions. The issues discussed included among others the forms of non-allowed agreements and difficulties with identifying them.
President of NIK, Krzysztof Kwiatkowski informed the conference participants that that works on the draft audit plan of NIK for 2014 were finished. It was the first time that the audit plan was developed based on the analysis of key system risks in Poland. Next year’s audits will tackle mostly the EU funds, investments in roads, railways, IT and armament. Starting 1999, the Supreme Audit Office has treated the corruption issue as the highest priority. During the meeting with the managerial staff in November, President Kwiatkowski underlined the need to identify the corruption risk in each audit dealing with public funds.
NIK has promoted anticorruption practices for years. The multiple initiatives proposed by the Polish SAI include: transparency of public procurement proceedings, limiting discretion of public officials’ conduct, ”four-eye” principles in settlement of cases, rotation on decision-making posts, eliminating conflicts of interests and strengthening internal control in public institutions.
NIK’s anticorruption efforts combined with transparency of functioning and independence of audit were appreciated by Transparency International. In the last year’s report Anticorruption mechanisms in Poland NIK scored 88 in 100 points. That was the best result among all Polish public institutions.
