WARSAW (Reuters) – The National Bank of Poland (NBP) said on Friday it informed prosecutors of the possibility that the parliament speaker and the head of a parliamentary committee may have committed a crime in trying to bring the central bank governor before a tribunal.
NBP governor Adam Glapinski faces several accusations from lawmakers of the ruling coalition, including that he lacked independence from the previous government, broke rules barring the central bank from financing government borrowing and misled the finance ministry about the bank’s financial results.
Glapinski, who has decades-old ties to Jaroslaw Kaczynski, head of the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party that lost power last year, reiterated on Thursday evening his earlier rebuttal of the accusations, calling on the government and lawmakers to respect the bank’s independence.
On Friday, the central bank said in a statement it notified prosecutors of potential offences by Szymon Holownia, the speaker of the lower house of parliament, and the Chairman of the Committee on Constitutional Responsibility, Zdzislaw Gawlik.
“The notification concerns illegal and groundless actions undertaken… in relation to the preliminary motion to bring (Glapinski) to constitutional responsibility before the State Tribunal, despite the lack of legal and factual grounds for specific actions,” the bank said.
Gawlik and Holownia’s press office did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
Gawlik told reporters on Thursday the committee would next meet on Sept. 24, and planned to start hearings then.
Final motions to bring people in Poland’s highest offices before a State Tribunal must pass a parliamentary vote in order to proceed.
(Reporting by Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk; Additional reporting by Karol Badohal; Editing by William Maclean)
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