POLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Tomasz Konopka, Katarzyna Randzio-Sajkowska and Jakub Kocuba, Sołtysiński Kawecki & Szlęzak
duty cannot be treated as a legal obligation and failure to comply with this duty is not sanctioned in any way. Article 240 of the Polish Criminal Code imposes a legal obligation to report, but only for certain types of crime. According to this provision, anyone who has reliable information about the preparation, attempt or commission of one of the offences listed in Article 240 of the Criminal Code is obliged to report the offence without undue delay. Failure to do so is treated as a crim - inal offence. The list of offences provided for in Article 240 of the Polish Penal Code includes, inter alia, homicide, offences that may harm national security, offences of a terrorist nature, sexual intercourse with a minor and unlawful imprisonment. Corruption-related offences are not included in this list, so there is no legal obli - gation to report such behaviours. 6.2 Voluntary Disclosure Incentives According to the Polish Criminal Code, the per - petrator of active corruption, both public and business, is not subject to a penalty if the mate - rial or personal benefit or its promise has been accepted and the perpetrator has reported it to a law enforcement authority responsible for prosecuting of offences and has disclosed all the relevant circumstances of the offence before this authority became aware of it. This is known as the “no-penalty” or immunity clause. The same applies to influence peddling. The per - petrator of the offence of giving or promising to give a material or personal benefit in exchange for facilitating a matter with the following entity: • a state or local government institution; • a national or international organisation; • a national or foreign entity that receives public funds;
• a state enterprise; and • a commercial company in which the State Treasury, local self-government or a state legal person has shares, which consists of unlawfully influencing a deci - sion, action or omission of a person perform - ing a public function, shall not be punishable if the material or personal benefit or the promise thereof has been accepted and the perpetra - tor has notified the authority established for the prosecution of the offence and has disclosed all relevant circumstances of the offence before it came to the attention of the authority. In addition, the general provisions of the Pol - ish Penal Code may be applied to a perpetrator who has disclosed information about the per - sons involved in the crime and the material cir - cumstances of its commission to a law enforce - ment authority responsible for the prosecution of offences. In this case, the court may apply an extraordinary reduction of the sentence or even There is no special procedure for self-reporting violations of anti-bribery and anti-corruption provisions. An active briber who wishes to ben - efit from the immunity clause must disclose all relevant circumstances of the offence before it comes to the attention of the authority. Such dis - closure may be made in any manner, including in writing, as a statement to the Authority, or orally before a law enforcement authority. 6.4 Protections Afforded to Whistle- Blowers As mentioned in 1.4 Recent Key Amendments to National Legislation , in September 2024, the Act of 14 June 2024 on the Protection of Whistle - blowers implementing Directive 2019/1937 of conditionally suspend its execution. 6.3 Self-Disclosure Procedures
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