End to Plagiarism?

Catch Me if You Can

There will be 16 members in the new Disciplinary Proceedings Representatives team that the Ministry of Science and Higher Education is creating. They will replace the current team, consisting of 11 academics and university workers from the whole country, who will be responsible for good academic practices. They examine cases concerning nepotism, misuse of power, plagiarism and discrimination in colleges and universities throughout the country and will present their opinions to Education Minister Barbara Kudrycka. “The main problem is that the team cannot do much. We investigate a case, we give our opinion, the Minister agrees and nothing comes of it because the college or institution in question has a different view on the case,” says an anonymous professor. The Ministry’s team investigates cases that were brought before college Disciplinary Boards. “Apart from giving our opinion on cases where we believe punishment to be inadequately low, there isn’t much we can do,” says a team member, “What is more, when we are dealing with plagiarism, for example, the victim (the academic that has been plagiarised) cannot appeal to the college board.” Only the Disciplinary Proceedings Representative, who plays the role of a college prosecutor, has such a right. It sometimes happens that the punishment is inadequately low because the Disciplinary Board does not want to severely punish an academic from its own college. An example of this is the case of Father (Professor) Stanisław T. from KUL (John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin) who was found guilty of plagiarism between 2003 and 2008 and was reprimanded by the KUL Disciplinary Board. The Disciplinary Proceedings Representative did not appeal. “The problem is that often colleagues have to evaluate colleagues. I’m personally not a firm supporter of the Ministry’s idea for the Disciplinary Proceedings Representatives team,” the professor adds. “There’s going to be a change in the whole disciplinary system in colleges,” says Professor Jan Hartman, “We mean to strengthen the Minister’s role in the process. Unfortunately, the Representatives are now often socially involved in college society. They feel uncomfortable appealing against their fellow workers, therefore they often turn a blind eye, or cases end with negligible punishments. Furthermore, smaller collages often do not have a strong legal team, so when the accused hires a professional lawyer, the Disciplinary Board is often helpless. I believe the Ministry team will consist of Law professors.” The Ministry of Science and Higher Education informed Gazeta that these changes are a part of an amendment to the Act on Higher Education, which it is currently being worked on.
Gazeta Wyborcza

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Pobieraczek Punished By UOKiK

Always Read the Small Print

The owner of the website Pobieraczek.pl mislead users according to the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK). Gdańsk-based Eller Service, the owners of Pobieraczek.pl have been fined PLN 239,100 by the Office. Pobieraczek.pl acts as a middleman for users in the downloading of films, computer games, photos and music. It promotes itself with the slogan “10 days downloading for free”. When accepting the terms, the user must input his/her their personal details: name, address, date of birth and e-mail address. However, as the Office has established, the contract comes into force on the first day of registration at Pobieraczek.pl and the fee was charged not after 10 days but after the first day. According to UOKiK, the practice is unfair and consumers have been misinformed. The Office claims that customers were led to believe the service was free during the first 10 days of the agreement. UOKiK received thousands of complaints from users. Company representative Ireneusz Lejczak has stated that the company will appeal against UOKiK’s decision. According to Lejczak, users are free to break the agreement. Most people do not do it because they do not read the terms.
Gazeta Wyborcza

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List of Shame

He's Making a List...

Will the unemployed be the only ones sitting in the Sejm (Poland’s Lower House)? Many politicians say that this may happen if MPs will not be allowed to run businesses. “The Sejm’s lawyers are long gone because outside of parliament they can make much more money,” said Stanisław Żelichowski, the head of the Polish People’s Party Parliamentary Club on Radio Zet. If entrepreneurs will not be tempted to run for office then who will be left? The unemployed? During his Saturday visit to Płock, the Polish Deputy PM Waldemar Pawlak echoed this sentiment appealing to his government colleagues not to persecute politicians simply because that at one point they were businesspeople or shareholders. Ideas to make it illegal for MPs to have a business surfaced after the story of Tomasz Misiak broke. The MP originally worked on the Shipyard Bill. Later, a company called Work Service, which he had shares in, signed a lucrative contract to retrain shipyard workers thanks to regulations in the Bill. These ties along with the fact that the contract was not put out to tender aroused suspicion.

On Friday, the Polish PM Donald Tusk declared that he expects MPs of Civic Platform (PO), to sever all ties between politics and business and sell their shares in private businesses. The head of PO’s Parliamentary Club Zbigniew Chlebowski announced that he is preparing a list of PO MPs and senators who have such ties. A similar announcement came from the the Democratic Left Aliance (SLD) and Law and Justice  (PiS). The weekend issue of Rzeczpospolita named the MPs who might appear on Chlebowski’s list. Among others, were Janusz Palikot (head of PO in Lublin), the Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office Rafał Grupiński and Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska. On Sunday, however, it appeared that the politicians’ scrutinising compulsions had significantly cooled as Chlebowski declared that he would not be compiling any such list. “There is no such need as everything is already on the internet,” said Chlebowski on Radio Zet. “It is enough to know which MPs are moving for which amendments on behalf of the club.” He also added that it would be difficult to rid oneself of company shares because the Polish stock exchange is in the middle of a slump. “Besides, the most important point is to get these affairs in order, to create a kind of a trust institution which would be put in charge of managing shares owned by MPs,” Chlebowski explained. The aforementioned Rzeczpospolita list of MPs who own shares in private businesses can be found at www.rp.pl/kraj.
Rzeczpospolita

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Media Beat CBA

CBA Strikes

Agents of the Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA) entered the Ministry of Finance but only after the press learned about the case. “I can confirm that CBA agents are already inside the Ministry premises,” said Ministry spokeswoman Magdalena Kobos. Interestingly enough, Kobos also admitted that the media had informed the public about the incident before it even took place. CBA agents are investigating tax returns submitted by Trzebina Refinery. They suspect that the Polish Treasury might have lost as much as PLN 100 million due to the artificial lowering of excise tax. “CBA agents are cooperating with the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Kraków which deals with organized crime. The ongoing investigation concerns the refinery in Trzebina and will look into the undervaluing of excise tax for the production and distribution of oil-derivative products,” said Temistokles Brodowski, the CBA ombudsman in an interview with Dziennik.
Dziennik

Left-wing Activists Arrested

CBA at Work

This morning the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA) caught two left-wing activists. Rzeczpospolita has learnt that one of the detainees is Przemysław G., a member of the board of the Social Democracy of Poland (SdPl), who is responsible for the new political image of the left wing. The second detainee is Maurycy S., a former spokesman of Marek Borowski during his 2005 presidential campaign. Rzeczpospolita has discovered that two months ago he was thrown out of the party for borrowing and then crashing  one of their official cars. Both men are accused of favouritism and giving bribes. They allegedly used their contacts in the courts for their own personal gain. Maurycy S. has been arrested for a period of three months.
Rzeczpospolita

Head of Kwaśniewska Foundation Caught

Friends in Low Places

Andrzej Kratiuk, head of Jolanta Kwasniewska’s foundation has been arrested. He is suspected of money laundering. Dziennik reports that police officers from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBŚ) broke into Kratiuk’s house in Warsaw and  arrested him by order of the the Public Prosecutor in Wroclaw. Investigating officers suspect Andrzej Kratiuk of a white-collar crime, that is money laundering. He was arrested together with six other people. Andrzej Kratiuk is the head of the charitable foundation Communication without barriers of former first lady Jolanta Kwaśniewska. His name first appeared during an investigation into irregularities in the accounts of fuel giant PKN Orlen. He was accused of siphoning money out of PKN Orlen, where he was a member of the board of supervisors, for his foundation. The Public Prosecutor also investigated whether or not he was laundering money during  the building of his house. However, both of these investigations were discontinued. Police have reassured the public that Kratiuk’s detention has nothing to do with Jolanta Kwaśniewska’s foundation.
Dziennik

Priest Trial

The trial of a former parish priest from Hłudno begins today. The trial will take place in the district court in Brzozowo on Podkarpacie. Stanisław K. is accused of causing an altar boy’s suicide. According to the prosecutor’s office the  clergyman bullied 13-year-old Bartosz O. He broke the boy’s bodily inviolability, insulted him and accused him of theft. The boy committed suicide in December last year. In his farewell letter Bartosz O. blamed the parish priest of his desperate deed. The authenticity of the boy’s hand writing was confirmed by handwriting experts. Moreover, the Brzozowo’s prosecutor’s office accused the defendant of bullying three under-age girls during religion lessons. Insulting and abuse spread fear amongst the children. The parish priest did not plead guilty and refused to give any explanation. He may be sentenced up to twelve years in prison.
Rzeczpospolita

WSI Commission Scandal

Prosecutor Robert Majewski from the Warsaw Department of Counteracting Organised Crime of the National Public Prosecutor, which is conducting the investigation into corruption in the liquidation of the Military Information Services (WSI), confirmed that two persons, whose apartments were searched today by the Internal Security Agency (ABW), Aleksander L. and Wojciech Sumliński (he demanded his name be given), were charged with payable patronage. He added that members of the WSI Verification Committee Piotr Bączek and Leszek Pietrzak have neither been detained nor accused of anything. Aleksander L. is a former officer of the military secret service of the People’s Republic of Poland. Sumliński is a journalist. At the end of April Dziennik reported that the Prosecutor’s Office will investigate proposals of selling the appendix to the WSI verification report. “One of these persons was questioned, and the questioning will be continued on Wednesday,” according to the Prosecutor. He added that on Wednesday there will be a decision on issuing an arrest warrant also. According to TVN24 Sumliński’s lawyer will be Roman Giertych.
Gazeta Wyborcza

Lepper Provokes, Krawczyk Testifies

On the second day of the trial, Aneta Krawczyk and Andrzej Lepper, accompanied by their lawyers, entered the district court in Piotrków Trybunalski at almost the same time. The head of Self-Defence has been provoking the woman with sarcastic statements such as, “I am so afraid of your declarations that I did not sleep all night.” However, Krawczyk did not react to his words. Rzeczpospolita has established that the public prosecutor put forward a proposal to give evidence by Aneta Krawczyk without the presence of the accused. This proposal was dismissed by the judge Magdalena Zapał-Nowak. However, Lepper stated that he want to unduly cause stress to Krawczyk left the courtroom. Stanisław Łyżwiński, on the other hand, did not leave. The former members of parliament are accused of sexual abuse of Self-Defence workers and additionally, Stanisław Łyżwiński of raping one woman. They are pleading innocent. Lepper left the Court because his counsel for the defence did not require his presence yesterday. “We are not going to ask any questions and make any declarations at the moment,” said Wiesław Żurawski, a lawyer. “We will give evidence when the witness finishes being questioned.” After leaving the Court, Andrzej Lepper went to the Hotel Trybunalski where he met with workers from Self-Defence who wanted to organize a demonstration in front of the Court. “We wanted to appear in front of the Court with banners and with demands to make this trial public,” stated Włodzimierz Maciołek. “This case is too complicated to be overseen by one judge. We gave up because the chairman did not want any scandals in front of the Court.”
Rzeczpospolita

Religa Interrogated

Former Health Minister Professor Zbigniew Religa was interrogated for over four hours by public prosecutors as a witness in relation to the investigation concerning corruption in the health services. Jarosław Pinkas, the former Under-secretary of Health and Religa’s colleague, is one of the suspects. The charges he was presented with concern the time when Pinkas was deputy director for clinical and organizational affairs in the Stefan Cardinal Wyszyński Cardiology Institute. Religa had run this Institute before he took over the Health Ministry in the Law and Justice (PiS) government. The head of the organized crime department in the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Łódź Bogumiła Tarkowska announced that the professor was interrogated but she did not want to reveal more details. When the interrogation ended, Religa admitted he was surprised that it involved so many issues, however, there were no questions concerning Jarosław Pinkas which made him disappointed as he wanted to speak positively about his colleague.

The former Minister acknowledged that he is still not acquainted precisely with the charges against Pinkas but on the basis of the interrogation there is no reason for him to change his mind about his colleague. In his opinion, Pinkas is fantastic, ambitious and completely devoted to his work. Religa will probably be interrogated again on May, 14 in the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Łódź. He confessed that the issues touched upon during the interrogation concerned the years 2001-2005. Moreover, he said that the prosecutors inquired about what he knew concerning certain tenders in the Institute. Asked by journalists whether he had an impression that the Public Prosecutor’s Office was concerned about him, Religa replied that if so he was pleased. However, he stated that he did not feel threatened.
Rzeczpospolita