State gas giant paid private detectives to investigate Vice-President
Detectives were paid PLN 100,000 to conduct surveillance on the PGNiG Vice-CEO.
Polish state-owned gas giant PGNiG paid a private detective agency PLN 100,000 to conduct surveillance on its Vice-President Miroslaw Sz. following an anonymous tip-off that the official was reportedly engaged in abuse and inappropriate behavior, the Polish economic daily Puls Biznesu reported in April 2014.
“It is inexcusable to outsource such initiatives to outside private service providers,” Mieczyslaw Tarnowski, former vice-chief of the Polish Internal Security Agency, said as quoted by Puls Biznesu. “It may lead to a leak of sensitive information, and – eventually – expose the national security. I have never seen anything like that.”
According to Puls Biznesu, the manager was subject to a surveillance, which lasted for a fortnight, between 14 and 28 December 2012. During that time, private detectives monitored his private car with the use of a GPS device, photographed him and his family, verified the people he met with and screened his and his family’s asset situation.
At the end of 2012, the agency produced a 90-pages-long report, which presented its findings. PGNIG reportedly paid a sum of PLN 100,000 for the service.
The Vice-President, Miroslaw Sz., quit PGNiG in December 2013. The newspaper attempted to gain better insight into the matter by contacting former members of PGNiG’s supervisory board as well as its former CEO, Grazyna Piotrowska-Oliwa, but all deny having played any part in mandating the service.
As CEE Insight previously reported, the detectives found no evidence to support allegations against the Miroslaw Sz., and suspicions were raised about the motives behind the investigation.
Photo courtesy of Nicolás García
