Secretary of State at the Ministry of State Assets of Poland, Robert Kropiwnicki, was asked on Thursday on Program 1 of Polish Radio about Tuesday's reports regarding the issue of a private detective working for Orlen. “It is unimaginable that a state-owned company spends the money it actually earns from Poles on spying on opposition MPs,” Kropiwnicki replied.
He added that he was not the only opposition MP under surveillance by the detective, and the surveillance concerned MPs who spoke about the activities of Orlen and Orlen's president, Daniel Obajtek. He emphasized that such action violates immunity and is detrimental to the company. “In this case, I will be reporting to the prosecutor's office for acting to the detriment of the company, but also for acting to my detriment,” he said.
He stressed that this would be a notice to the people who signed the order, as well as to the gentleman who performed the orders for the company. “He shouldn't have accepted this job. This man should never have had a detective license,” he said.
He added that it was difficult for him to understand what the people hiring the detective wanted to achieve with such actions and whether sending detectives after opposition MPs was supposed to be a goal in itself or a cover for eavesdropping on ministers. “I think someone has just lost their mind on this,” he added.
He explained that this is one of the elements that emerged during company audits. “I think this is not the only thing that will attract public attention in the near future,” he noted. He said that the company bodies would communicate further things and that there were plenty of unwise orders and actions to the detriment of the companies. He added that this is the tip of the iceberg.
On Tuesday, Donald Tusk, referring to the former president of Orlen, Daniel Obajtek, stated that “he had typical interests for PiS officers”, and signed, among others, an assignment for a detective whose task was to “identify and document activities against unfair competition towards PKN Orlen, including identifying sources of disclosing information regarding the operation of the concern.” The detective was involved in tracking opposition MPs, including: Marcin Kierwiński, Jan Grabiec or MEP Andrzej Halicki – said Tusk, adding that Orlen spent over PLN 1 million on these detective services.
Former president of Orlen, Daniel Obajtek, denied that he hired a detective for over PLN 1 million. According to Obajtek, the amount given by the head of government is the cost of protection granted to him by the company's supervisory board.
