Telus: I didn't know about the sale of the plot in Zabłotnia. What has the current government decided?

Before the plot in Zabłotnia was sold, the then head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Robert Telus, dismissed the plenipotentiary for social dialogue in the field of management of agricultural properties of the State Treasury – said the current head of the ministry, Stefan Krajewski. Previously, Telus stated that it was not aware of the sale of the plot.

On Sunday, former Minister of Agriculture in the PiS government, Robert Telus, wrote on the

“I read Robert Telus' statement and I am devastated. If the constitutional minister does not know what is happening in his ministry, what his deputy ministers are doing, what was he doing? Dancing with a fire extinguisher or maybe there are other matters where someone else's business was being handled and which are worth taking a closer look at?” – Krajewski also wrote on X.

He added that on August 22, 2023, Telus, as the then head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, appointed a representative for social dialogue in the field of management of agricultural properties of the State Treasury.

“What were his tasks? The first and most important was to signal to the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, hereinafter referred to as the “Minister”, potential threats related to selected matters related to the management of agricultural properties of the State Treasury.”

Krajewski announced, attaching a photo of a document from the official journal of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, that on November 14, 2023, Telus revoked this order, thereby dismissing the representative. “Maybe if it weren't for that, you would have known about the case? Or maybe you did, but you did everything to not officially know?” – he wrote, turning to Telus.

Earlier on Sunday, Telus wrote in a statement that it had “no knowledge of the sale of plot 87/1 in Zabłotnia.” “There is not even a single signature of mine in the documents regarding this case, this case has never reached my desk. Contrary to the original, false theses, this plot is not located in the area of ​​the planned construction of the CPK, but more than 6 kilometers from this area,” he added.

Last week, Wirtualna Polska wrote that in 2023, shortly before PiS gave up power, the Ministry of Agriculture gave consent to the sale by KOWR to the vice-president of Dawtona, Piotr Wielgomas, of a plot of 160 ha, through which the high-speed rail line from Warsaw to the CPK airport is to run. According to the portal, in 2023, but before the transaction, Dawton's company was visited by the then Minister of Agriculture, Robert Telus. Ultimately, the sale transaction amounting to PLN 22.8 million was concluded on December 1, 2023, shortly before PiS returned to power.

According to WP, one of the obstacles to purchasing the plot was the fact that there is a watercourse on it, a tributary of the Pisia Tuczna River, and according to the law, running water belongs to the State Treasury and cannot be sold. Dividing a plot of land and separating a watercourse is a tedious and lengthy administrative process. When in 2023, Wody Polskie reclassified the watercourse as a drainage ditch, the sale could already be made. The portal emphasizes that the decision of Polish Waters was made two days after Telus' visit to Dawton.

On Friday, the president of Wód Polskie submitted a notification about the possibility of committing a crime regarding the plot in Zabłotnia by the former president and former vice-president of this institution. Wody Polskie informed that the internal audit showed irregularities in decisions made in previous years by PGW Wody Polskie officials regarding the plot in Zabłotnia.

As stated in the announcement, “in August 2023, the then president of Polish Waters provided the Ministry of Infrastructure with information that the “Tributary from Zabłotnia” stream is a water facility (drainage ditch), which resulted in the discontinuation of the administrative proceedings to determine the shoreline (such proceedings are carried out only in relation to flowing waters).” In the opinion of Wód Polskie, the information about the drainage ditch provided to MI in 2023 was prepared without a reliable analysis and on-site visit. Friday's announcement emphasized that there is a natural watercourse in this place on the Hydrographic Division of Poland.

In Sunday's statement, Telus assured that “if the land is needed for investments accompanying the CPK, e.g. railway tracks, in accordance with the sale agreement, the State Treasury will be able to buy it immediately at the sales price.

The former Minister of Agriculture in the Law and Justice government also referred to information about his meetings with the president of Dawtona, Andrzej Wielgomas. “We met in 2023 due to the crisis on the vegetable and soft fruit market (mainly raspberries). The goal was to work out an action to buy raspberries from farmers to avoid losses for producers (…), which is why we talked to the Polish agri-food processing company Dawtona,” he wrote on X.

According to Wirtualna Polska, Dawton's company made a series of tubes with fruit mousses especially for PiS politicians, with their images and the party logo. One of the MPs who ordered tubes of fizz as election gadgets in 2023 was Robert Telus.

According to the portal, there were data inconsistencies on the order invoice, and the price of the materials was exceptionally low.

Telus also addressed this issue in its entry. “I bought 1.5 thousand advertising tubes with mousse, worth PLN 750!!!, legally from another company that has been cooperating with Dawtona for a long time. It was a promotional product, cheaper than a store-bought, non-full-weight advertising gadget,” he wrote.

gkc/malk/