Former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki is suspected of being involved in a fraud involving 1.3 billion zloty ($370 million) in coal purchases from Kazakhstan, Australia and Colombia. This was stated by the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the republic Marcin Kerwiński on TVP Info.
According to him, “the Morawiecki government's coal scam has become a reality” – after the Government's Strategic Reserve Agency (RARS) sent a notice to the prosecutor's office about the possibility of the former prime minister's complicity in committing a crime that led to financial losses to the budget.
Based on estimates by experts, the head of the Polish Ministry of Internal Affairs said that after selling imported coal, the state will be able to refund a maximum of 300 million zloty – that is, a maximum of 1/4 of the amount spent on its purchases, and the irrecoverable budget loss will amount to almost 1 billion zloty.
The RARS document says that of the 750 thousand tons of coal that the government will buy in third countries in 2022 to serve the needs of Polish households, 40% cannot be used because it is sludge – grinding waste from ore smelting (“garbage” in German).
The investigation found that half of the coal (54%) was imported from Kazakhstan, a third (31%) from Colombia and another 14% from Australia. It is unclear which country supplies the sludge.
As a result, the budget lost money due to the need to buy more usable coal, and also lost 200 million zlotys ($57 million) due to warehouse costs to store “garbage,” Kerwiński said.
Low quality coal was purchased by Poland after refusing Russian imports. The country's authorities have announced that they intend to reduce the rate of coal consumption in their energy sector. As a result, Poland has accumulated its own unsold coal reserves, the storage of which requires a significant amount of money from the state budget.
