A parliamentary investigative committee on alleged lobbying by government members on behalf of the gambling industry has voted in favour of a final report, though members from the Law and Justice opposition party call it “unreliable”.

Four MPs from the ruling coalition of Civic Platform and Polish Peasants Party supported the report by its leader Miroslaw Sekula but three opposition MPs from the Law and Justice and the Democratic Left Alliance opposed it.

According to the report, Civic Platform politicians did not lobby in favour of the gambling industry while a gambling bill was being drafted. The committee decided that there is not enough evidence to inform the Prosecutor’s Office about an offence.

At the same time the committee found, however, that former head of Civic Platform’s parliamentary club Zbigniew Chlebowski – who was forced to resign after the anti-corruption bureau accused him of lobbying on behalf of the industry - “did not maintain parliamentary standards”. The committee also found  testimony of former sports minister Miroslaw Drzewiecki – who was also forced to resign – “not credible”.

The Civic Platform government was rocked last October when Chlebowski, Drzewiecki, justice minister Andrzej Czuma and interior minister Grzegorz Schetyna all offered resignations following the accusations of sleaze within the government.

Head of the anti-corruption bureau, Mariusz Kaminski was also sacked after Prime Minister Donald Tusk that he was using his office for the benefit of the Law and Justice party.

Opposition MPs tried to convince other members of the committee to reject the report. Beata Kempa, Andrzej Dera and Bartosz Arlukowicz claim that the report is full of mistakes and contradictions and have announced that they will write their own reports on the committee’s investigation.

“I’m really disappointed that after so many months of hard work the committee has presented a report which is simply unreliable. It’s a shame that the committee members approved the report even though there were contradictions in it,” said Bartosz Arlukowicz.

The Law and Justice’s Andrzej Dera said he was disgusted after reading the report and his party colleague Beata Kempa called the report a “corpse which the Law and Justice and the Democratic Left Alliance MPs tried to resuscitate with amendments.” (pg/mg)

Source: PAP