The law founding the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA) is partly unconstitutional, ruled the Constitutional Court today.

The Bureau was established three years ago, as a secret service responsible for the fight against corruption in public life and business, and a central part of the policy agenda of the Law and Justice-led government, headed by Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

According to the verdict by the Constitutional Tribunal, the law included an unconstitutional definition of corruption. And regulations concerning the security of data about third party’s and information provided to the Bureau by public institutions were ruled to be at variance with Poland’s constitution.

Many of the regulations are also conflicting with the international conventions signed by Poland, the court declared.

The Central Anti-Corruption Bureau’s spokesman, Temistokles Brodowski, said he is satisfied with the verdict. “The main rules of our institution were not questioned, so that decision will not influence the Bureau’s functioning at all,” he said after the ruling.

Pawel Poncyliusz, an MP from the Law and Justice claims, however, that the ruling is “political revenge”.  

“The Constitutional Court, in its current composition will repeal every law made by the Law and Justice government. I hope that after the change of the composition of the court next year, it will no longer be guided by political revenge,” Poncyliusz told Tok FM radio. (jg/pg)