“A group of seven inspectors representing the Treasury and Customs Office in Łódź visited the Open Dialog Foundation’s domicile today. The tax ledgers and documents for 2014-2016 were retained for further investigation” – announced Onet on Monday, 7 August. The website also quoted an opinion of Bartosz Kramek, Head of the Foundation Board, to whom such inspection was just part of a bigger campaign targeted against those NGOs which were critical towards the government.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ inspection was aimed at investigating the Foundation’s records such as e.g. statement on taxable income, documents and contracts related to economic events in 2014-2016, bank account statements and cash reports. Agnieszka Pawlak, a press spokesperson representing the Chamber of Tax Administration in Łódź, did not offer too much explanation: – This inspection had to be carried out by us, as a tax authority, upon request of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. All details of such inspection, its scope, nature and duration are state treasury secrets.
Bartosz Kramek has commented the issue as follows: – We have nothing to hide. We have expected such actions to be taken against us, because several Ministers announced them. In our view, they are part of a campaign that has been launched not only against us, but also against all NGOs which are critical towards the government. This is not the first ever tax inspection to be carried out at the ODF. We hope that the inspectors will act professionally and ignore the pressures put on them by politicians who are willing to find irregularities by hook or crook.
The inspection was ordered by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs soon after the Foundation posted on its website and FB the statement on the political situation in Poland, and a note by Bartosz Kramek, Head of the Foundation Board, titled: “The state must be stopped! Let’s switch off the government”.
Source: wiadomości.onet.pl
Read:
- Onet: The Government does not want an Open Dialog
- Wielowieyski for Gazeta Wyborcza: Open Dialog at a crossroads
- Onet analyses Marcin Rey’s report on the ODF. “Another attack on the Foundation and yet another disgrace”
- Bartosz Kramek for Radio Zet: “Concession is something we have never concealed”
- TVN24 about the attack on ODF ”We have already got used to tapped telephones”
- Wirtualna Polska about the media and government’s smear campaign against ODF. Kramek: “This is a politically motivated beginning of repressions”
- Gazeta.pl’s account on the TVP Channel’s distortions of the truth on the ODF activities
- The Open Dialog Foundation in “Teraz Ja!” program: We feel the pressure, it is a violation of human rights
- Kramek at “Dryjańska naTemat”: We need to stand firm against extermination of NGOs. We have already seen that happening in Russia
- naTemat rebuts conspiracy theories concerning the ODF and Google Inc.’s support for political opposition in Poland
- Krytyka Polityczna: Open Dialog Foundation targeted by pro-government media
- Marcin Święcicki: The reports on the ODF are false
- Lyudmyla Kozlovska for Newsweek: Silence would be a hypocrisy
- ‘We are here to defend democracy’ – Lyudmyla Kozlovska and Bartosz Kramek in an interview for Gazeta Wyborcza
- “We see the Ministry’s call as censorship” – Bartosz Kramek comments on the Ministry’s letter
- Polsat News covers the speech of Bartosz Kramek at OSCE/ODIHR HDIM 2017 side event
See also:
- Open Dialog Foundation’s statement of 21 July 2017 on the dismantling of the rule of law in Poland
- Open Dialog Foundation’s statement of 23 July 2017
- The statement of the decision of the President of the Republic of Poland of 24 July 2017 regarding the judiciary reform
- The Open Dialog Foundation’s statement of 31 July 2017 (funding and donors, or a few words about ‘soroses’)