CBA sought records related to pandemic purchases, including purchases of respirators from an arms dealer. The agents appeared at the KGHM offices in Lubin last week – the tvn24.pl portal found out – They carried out the order to release items specified by the Regional Prosecutor's Office in Łódź – said Jacek Dobrzyński, spokesman for the Minister Coordinator of Special Services.
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This means that the company's management was obliged to provide certain documents, and in the event of refusal, a search could result. However, the Management Board of KGHM cooperated with the officers and provided the required materials.
The CBA's activities are part of a large-scale investigation supervised by the Regional Prosecutor's Office in Łódź since autumn 2024. – The case concerns suspected abuse of powers and failure to fulfill duties by officials of the Ministry of Health, the Chancellery of the Prime Minister and the Government Agency for Strategic Reserves – said Krzysztof Kopania, spokesman for the Łódź prosecutor's office, quoted by tvn24.pl.
What were the CBA agents looking for?
The investigation was initiated as a result of a notification submitted by the Ministry of Health in early 2024.
CBA agents secured all documentation regarding purchases made during the pandemic in the KGHM archives. – This concerns preserved e-mail correspondence, documents from negotiation processes and the implementation of contracts – an anonymous source told tvn24.pl.
In the background there is a ventilator scandal and an arms dealer
In 2020, at the request of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, KGHM began purchasing medical equipment necessary to fight COVID-19. The company was supposed to find a supplier, and the invoices were covered by the state budget. As an intermediary in the purchase of 285 respirators, KGHM chose Andrzej Izdebski, an entrepreneur from Lublin, whose company produced motor hang gliders, and Izdebski himself had links with the illegal arms trade in the past.
The then deputy minister of health, Janusz Cieszyński, assured that the contracts with Izdebski's company were recommended by the Intelligence Agency. At the same time, Izdebski's company was to deliver 1,000 respirators ordered by the Ministry of Health.
The ventilator scandal
NIK auditors found that KGHM paid for 285 respirators significantly above the market price – the manufacturer offered them for PLN 65,000. PLN, ultimately cost PLN 159,000. PLN per piece. The loss from this one transaction reached PLN 27 million.
The funds – in the form of advances – went to Andrzej Izdebski. The devices did not have the required certification and were not used in the fight against the pandemic.
Andrzej Izdebski left for Albania in 2022, where he died. After being brought to Poland, his body was cremated.
— In the investigation, we focus on the responsibility of the then authorities of KGHM, the highest officials of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister and the Government Agency of Strategic Reserves, who received respirators from the arms dealer, informs the Central Anticorruption Bureau.
Source: TVN24
