Poland to Shed Top Government Jobs Following Outcry Over Bonuses

(Bloomberg) -- Poland wants to eliminate as much as a quarter of 126 deputy ministers and scrap bonuses for top government brass following an outcry over end-of-year payouts for politically appointed state officials, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced on Monday.

Morawiecki's plan, aimed at creating a “leaner” and more transparent administration, also includes curbing the number of credit cards for top officials. The moves follow news that Beata Szydlo, who stepped down as premier in December, paid bonuses to herself and other cabinet members of as much as 82,000 zloty ($24,000), or about 1.5 times the country's average annual wage.

The decisions, which Morawiecki said “aren't linked to the recent press reports,” highlight rising concern by the authorities' over their public image after the Law & Justice party won elections in 2015 in part by portraying predecessors as self-serving elitists detached from the problems of regular Poles. Deputy Premier Jaroslaw Gowin apologized last week after saying that he “barely managed” to get by on a ministerial salary.

Support for Law & Justice dropped last month to 43 percent, according to an average of the last nine polls compiled by Bloomberg, still higher than the 37 percent it won in the last general election. Besides the row over bonuses, the authorities have also been embroiled in a conflict over new rules criminalizing suggestions of Polish complicity in the Holocaust, which has outraged Israel and alarmed Polish allies such as the U.S. and France.

Morawiecki told reporters on Monday that he gave his 75,100 zloty bonus to charity, but declined to “speak for the other” ministers. As a former chief executive officer at Bank Zachodni WBK SA, the premier had more than $2 million in cash and shares as of Dec. 11, according to an obligatory personal wealth statement posted on the government's website.

To contact the reporter on this story: Marek Strzelecki in Warsaw at mstrzelecki1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrea Dudik at adudik@bloomberg.net, Wojciech Moskwa, Andrew Langley

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