Małgorzata Solecka: Respirators. Fashion for untruth

At first glance, the accusations do not even require a long evidentiary procedure, they are obvious - after what we know for sure about the way of signing the contract with E&K from Lublin and its implementation, it is difficult to prove that the provisions on public finances were preserved, the treasury was not exposed to losses, and officials fulfilled their obligations, from which they were not relieved of even by the pandemic.

One can only consider reasons and circumstances.

Someone will say - bad will and willingness to pursue some (probably dark) interests. How else to explain the enormous price gap after which the health department agreed to buy respirators when they were available directly from the manufacturer for a fraction of the cost? It is not entirely improbable. It cannot be ruled out without a thorough check.

Someone will say - ineptitude, aggravated by panic. This is an equally, if not more likely scenario, but not a little more favorable for those who made the decisions, especially as somewhere in the background - in both scenarios - there is a sense of impunity or even the assurance of such impunity due to "high factors". An attempt to enter, post factum, into the "clerical abolition" act, which protects in the event of proving ineptitude, violation of the provisions on public finances, etc. (but not in the case of proven corruption) reinforced the perception that the purchase of respirators was a scandal. Vox populi, vox dei - and one can be afraid of those who made permanent decisions at that time, the nickname "the respirator" has been attached.

Someone will say - the truth of time. And she will also be partially right. NIK does not have to take into account the so-called accompanying circumstances, especially since they are necessarily not documented. The Israeli Mossad will not issue a certificate (and even if it did, there would be no legal basis to attach it to the documentation) that it had made similar purchases (and similarly some of them ended in embarrassment, which was very loud in the Israeli media in late spring 2020 , this embarrassment also concerned the purchase of respirators, some of which were not fit for use, just like in Poland). This truth of time is an important element that should be taken into account at the stage of court proceedings, when considering the degree of responsibility - for breaking public finance regulations and exposing the state treasury to serious losses.

However, it can be assumed that the prosecutor's office will dismiss the case. Or otherwise - it will twist her head, at least temporarily. Especially in the context of information about the death of one of the main - certainly not the main - heroes of the saga about how Poland bought and did not buy equipment needed to save lives in the spring, this is the most likely scenario.

This is not about the Games, but about the credibility of the state. As in the fight against a pandemic, it must not be about raising capital, but about the effective protection of citizens. The rulers accuse the opposition of "heating up" the respirator issue for political reasons. But don't the decision makers who, in an unauthorized way, ignoring the 2020-2021 mortality data, boast that "in Poland, unlike many Western European countries, there is no bed and a respirator for anyone" are not doing the same? It was not so. Poland, no matter how many spells during the speeches of the politicians of the United Right would not fall, could not cope with the pandemic. The balance is tragic, which should be accepted not only with humility, but above all - with reflection. Because only they will allow, perhaps, to draw conclusions and not to make mistakes. Willful or not, mistakes that have cost many thousands of lives.