‘Thongs, cigars and diamonds for public money’: report

The Polish Shipping Company (PŻM) lost millions of euros as a result of practices including over-the-top spending and was brought to the brink of bankruptcy when the now-opposition Civic Platform (PO) party and its junior coalition partner, the rural-based Polish People’s Party (PSL), were in power until 2015, the Gazeta Polska Codziennie daily has reported.

The spending spree saw the cargo ship operator's accounts shrink by some EUR 300 million, the conservative newspaper said in its weekend issue.

It quoted the company’s official receiver as saying that PŻM had an albatross around its neck as employees from a US-based subsidiary used company credit cards to stock up on luxury goods.

Purchases included “jewelry for USD 100,000, cigars for USD 40,000 and exclusive women's underwear,” the daily reported, citing the company’s trustee in bankruptcy, Paweł Brzezicki.

A string of unjustified expenses was detected during a series of audits that have been carried out since last year, covering the 2004-2016 period, according to Gazeta Polska Codziennie.

"The scale is terrifying because we have questioned 90 percent of expenses paid with company [credit] cards," said head auditor Robert Dąbrowski, as quoted by the daily on its website, in a piece entitled “Thongs, cigars and diamonds for public money.”

Meanwhile, Brzezicki has notified law enforcement services about alleged "large-scale [financial] damage" to the PŻM group, the daily said, adding that the National Public Prosecutor's Office has opened a probe into the suspected spending bonanza.

(gs/pk)

Source: gpcodziennie.pl, PAP, Polish Radio, TVP Info