POLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Tomasz Konopka, Katarzyna Randzio-Sajkowska and Jakub Kocuba, Sołtysiński Kawecki & Szlęzak
7. Enforcement Trends 7.1 Enforcement
the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2019 on the protection of whistle- blowers of Union law entered into force. According to the provisions of the Act, all pri - vate entities with at least 50 employees are required to establish a whistle-blowing system and an internal procedure for reporting violations of law in accordance with the provisions of the Act. The Act sets out the mandatory minimum standard for such an internal procedure. The Act also specifies the areas of law whose violation or suspected violation may be reported, and the internal procedure must allow for the reporting of such violations, one of which is corruption. The Act also provides mechanisms for the pro - tection of whistle-blowers, ie, persons who report or publicly disclose information about a violation of the law obtained in a work-related context. In particular, the Act clearly states that no retaliation, attempt or threat of retaliation may be taken against the whistle-blower. Retaliation is defined as any direct or indirect act or omis - sion in a work-related context caused by a report or public disclosure that violates or is likely to violate the whistle-blower’s rights or causes or is likely to cause undue harm to the whistle-blower, including the initiation of unfounded proceed - ings against the whistle-blower. 6.5 Incentives Provided to Whistle- Blowers Under Polish law, there are no statutory incen - tives for whistle-blowers to report bribery and corruption and other violations. However, an entity that is required to establish a whistle-blowing system may, on a voluntary basis, include its own system of incentives for whistle-blowers in its internal procedure for reporting violations of the law.
In Polish jurisdiction, there is criminal enforce - ment of anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws. Criminal proceedings in corruption cases in Poland are conducted in the form of investi - gations, as is the case for virtually all criminal offences. This means that they are conducted by the prosecutor’s office. Investigations may be entrusted to the police or to other agencies, such as the CBA. If an indictment is brought to court, the case is heard by a common criminal court. There are no special courts for corruption cases in Poland. 7.2 Enforcement Bodies In 2006, a special service, the Central Anti-cor - ruption Bureau (CBA), was established with the priority of detecting and preventing corruption in public life. The CBA carries out secret operations aimed at uncovering crimes and performs tasks within the framework of criminal proceedings under the supervision of the Public Prosecu - tor’s Office. Similar to other special agencies, the CBA has the right to carry out operational activi - ties such as surveillance, wiretapping and even entrapment (the controlled giving of bribes). 7.3 Jurisdictional Reach of Enforcement Bodies The jurisdictional reach of the enforcement bod - ies and the court is referred to in 3.2 Geographi- cal Reach of Applicable Legislation . Taking this into account, the jurisdiction of Polish bodies mainly covers acts committed in Polish territory, or the effect of which occurred in Poland. However, Polish law enforcement bodies co- operate with other countries’ authorities. The
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