CBA: Reactivation

Junior Inspector Wojciech Olszowy, until recently deputy commander of the Central Bureau of Investigation of the Police, left the police on June 3, after 28 years of service. Formally, he retired. In reality, he immediately joined the management of the Central Anticorruption Bureau - however, this was not officially announced. However, at the two-day 4th Security Forum in Łódź, which began on Tuesday, June 10, Olszowy will appear "under the brand" of the CBA. And he is to be the deputy chief here - according to information from "Rz". Olszowy's recruitment to the CBA - which was designated for liquidation a year ago - is a sign that the government may withdraw from plans to liquidate this formation.

Until recently, the dissolution of the CBA was a foregone conclusion. It was included in the coalition agreement, and on December 10, 2024, the government adopted a draft act on the coordination of anti-corruption activities and the liquidation of the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau , submitted by Tomasz Siemoniak - minister coordinator of special services, head of the Ministry of Interior and Administration.

As "Rz" first revealed, the CBA's tasks were to be taken over by a new formation called the Central Bureau for Combating Corruption (and some of the tasks would go to the ABW and KAS) – established within the police structures. The commander of the new formation was to be Olszowy. His transfer to the CBA shows that the government has abandoned these plans, at least for now.

The ruling coalition was in no hurry to work on the bill to liquidate the CBA – it was waiting for the change of president (Andrzej Duda announced that he would not sign the bill liquidating the agency). But it miscalculated. It is not known what opinion Karol Nawrocki, the president-elect, who will take office on August 6, has. A few days ago, however, Minister Tomasz Siemoniak stated that "it will now be the decision of the coalition and the government whether to launch the project to liquidate the Central Anticorruption Bureau in the Sejm."

Polska 2050, which on Tuesday publicly presented five of its most important projects to implement, did not mention the liquidation of the CBA. – The club does not know anything about it. Please ask the party board – MP Bartosz Romowicz, deputy head of the Polska 2050 club, tells us.

- After all, it's a PO project. For God's sake, let them send it to the Sejm, instead of asking the coalition partners. It was supposed to be liquidated in three months, but that's not our promise - fumes Marek Sawicki, a PSL MP.

- I am not authorized to speak on this issue. Let's wait for the coalition partners' decisions and the directions that the prime minister will announce tomorrow in the Sejm. On Wednesday, a vote of confidence in the prime minister is to be voted on and before that day I do not want to speak on this subject - says Maria Janyska, a KO MP and head of the Sejm's Internal Affairs Committee.

We were unable to reach anyone from the board of the individual parties – no one answered the phone.

The head of the CBA since April of this year has been Tomasz Strzelczyk, also a former CBŚP police officer, who fought crime, including drug crime. After Agnieszka Kwiatkowska-Gurdak and Dariusz Drozdowski left the CBA, he has been running it alone since March.

Wojciech Olszowy has been in the police since 1997. "For 28 years, he has carried out tasks in various police departments, i.e. in prevention and criminal, working his way up from the lowest level to the position of deputy commander of the Central Bureau of Investigation of the Police" - it was written about him on the website Policja.pl . - He is undoubtedly an expert in police work, he has climbed all the ranks - they say about him in the formation. In the CBŚP, Olszowy was a deputy commander for three years.

The liquidation of the CBA may also be problematic for another reason. The European Parliament's Anti-Corruption Directive (on combating corruption) of 2023 includes as one of its main postulates the establishment of specialized, separate bodies in individual countries that will deal with combating corruption.

- What is the government doing? It is going in the opposite direction. Liquidating the CBA would be a return to the "Rywin era", to what it was like in 2003. After all, the establishment of the CBA was a joint project, PO also voted for it. This service is a value. For example, it detected abuses in RARS (Government Agency for Strategic Reserves), and an investigation was initiated based on the CBA materials, and this was during the PiS era - a high-ranking CBA officer tells us.

The police are already suffering from staff shortages, and the new structure created from their resources to combat corruption may be ineffective for this reason.

The CBA has about 1,300 officers. It is the brainchild of Mariusz Kamiński, a PiS politician. It has been accused of politicization.