Southern Hospital Scandal Highlights Flawed Oversight, Says Polish Politician

Adrian Zandberg, co-chair of the Razem party, has sharply criticized the oversight mechanisms for municipal companies in Warsaw, citing the ongoing scandal at the Southern Hospital as a prime example. He argues that the current system, where supervisory boards are composed of political appointees from the same party, results in a "fiction of oversight" and allows for mismanagement and potential corruption.

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The basic issue is that oversight is not working. What we are seeing, these successive stories from the Southern Hospital, show that the oversight mechanism is nonexistent.

Zandberg pointed to recent reports that the Southern Hospital paid 725,000 Polish zloty for a grant application to the National Recovery Plan, a service other institutions procured for 25,000-30,000 zloty – over 20 times less. He stated that such situations confirm his long-held view that the oversight of local governments is inadequate.

"The basic issue is that oversight is not working," Zandberg said in a television interview. He elaborated that these supervisory boards often serve as sinecures for local politicians, providing them with lucrative positions. When scandals emerge, board members often claim ignorance, which Zandberg finds unacceptable. "If you didn't know, why are you on the supervisory board?" he questioned.

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We should introduce normal professional oversight of municipal property in Poland, instead of supervisory boards filled with local politicians.

Zandberg advocates for replacing these politically appointed boards with a professional, civil-service-based oversight system, which he believes already exists within Poland's legal framework. He described the current practice as a "carousel of exchange," where politicians from one city are appointed to boards in another, and vice versa, to secure positions and salaries for minimal work. He urged for this "pathology" to be removed from the Polish system.

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This carousel of exchange only serves to ensure that successive individuals receive tens of thousands of zlotys for nothing.