The acquisition of Pegasus spyware by the Central Anti-corruption Office was financed by the Justice Fund, which is subordinate to the Ministry of Justice – determined “Gazeta Wyborcza”. This was illegal due to the fact that the CBA could only be financed from the state budget. However, the Ministry of Finance rejected the complaint of the ultimate Chamber of Control on this matter. The acquisition of Pegasus shows, in part, the paper to which Mr Michał Szczerba reached.
At a gathering of the Public Finance Commission on 15 September 2017, there is simply a “change in the financial plan of the Fund for Harmful Aid and Postpenitentiary Assistance”. Thanks to these changes, CBA will yet receive PLN 25 million, which will then be utilized to acquisition Pegasus' surveillance strategy – we can read in Monday's "Electoral".
No mention of Pegasus
The request for amendments was submitted by Deputy Minister of Justice Michał Woś. “The Members have no thought that it is buying for CBA, and there is not a word on the committee about it,” writes journalists “GW”. The amendments proposed by Woś are intended to extend the "catalogue of institutions" financed by the Justice Fund to "public finance institutions".
The proposal does not include the name ‘Pegasus’ or the mention of CBA funding. Before submitting his application, Woś asked the ministry to authorise the transfer of PLN 25 million from the fund for activities that are to "use crime prevention".
On the date on which the committee authorises the extension of the directories financed by the institution's fund, the head of CBA Ernest Bejda sends a request to the Ministry of Justice to transfer funds to operational activities, informs ‘Gazeta Wyborcza’. Half a period later, the Ministry of Justice and the CBA sign an agreement "for the amount of PLN 25 million allocated to the implementation of the statutory tasks of CBA in the field of crime detection and prevention".
Pegasus and the discipline of public finances
The acquisition of Pegasus from the Justice Fund shows in part the resolution of the Chief Ombudsman of Public Finance Discipline on 14 September 2020, to which Mr Michał Szczerba, associate of the Civic Coalition, reached. The Ombudsman investigated the complaint of the ultimate Audit Office that it was refused to initiate proceedings on irregularities in the acquisition of the Pegasus system.
Under the order of the Ombudsman in this case, Deputy Finance Minister Piotr Patkowski is signed, who considered that there had been irregularities, but their harm is negligible, and he so again refused to initiate proceedings in this case.
Patkowski argued that "the usage of funds from the Fund was deliberate and effective" in terms of the transfer of them to the CBA. "The financial discipline has not been breached to a degree higher than the negligible," argued the Deputy Minister of Finance.
“Classical Act”
– The designation of unlawful action as a insignificant harmful act is simply a grandda in broad daylight. You anticipate us to believe that 2 days after Ziobra's amendment of the regulation, he's being approached by the head of the CBA for $25 million to acquisition peculiar equipment to prevent crime? This was a classical setup – he evaluates in a conversation with “Election” MP Michał Szczerba.
– possibly the point is that a strategy that cannot be legally utilized in the Polish legal order has been bought. possibly they should be more free to usage it. surely this material should be utilized for the work of the committee of inquiry. It is simply a substance of work for the guilty to be punished and the public to know the scale of the pathology of the PiS state," added the MP.
