Alleged cronyism costs Polish four their jobs

Date: 05/12/02

FOUR senior regional farm officials in Poland have lost their jobs following a European Commission probe into alleged cronyism.

Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler had questioned the appointments following claims that up to 16 office directors were unqualified and had been given the jobs simply because of their links with the ruling coalition in Warsaw.

The officials were involved in administering the EU's 530 million euro-per-year Special Accession Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development (SAPARD). Of the 16 directors concerned, two have been dismissed and two have stepped down. 'The same statistics apply for the 32 deputy directors,' Fischler revealed.

The officials were appointed by Aleksander Bentowski, head of Poland's Agency for the Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture, who had sacked their predecessors. The Commission wrote to Warsaw in August, seeking an explanation after the national authorities failed to inform it about the proposed nominations - a requirement of its SAPARD agreement.

'The Polish authorities were reminded that, in future, the Commission would expect to be informed in advance of such changes,' added Fischler, responding to a query by Dutch Liberal MEP Jan Mulder.

A similar case arose in Bulgaria, where one of two deputy directors of the country's SAPARD agency was removed without the Commission being told. As a result, Fischler said, the EU's executive stalled on transferring funds to the agency until 'the facts of the case were established'.

Four senior regional farm officials in Poland have lost their jobs following a European Commission probe into alleged cronyism.