Do you think that multi-million dollar public procurement scams are the bane of our times? It used to be no better. In interwar Poland, it was much worse! The press was constantly reporting on this type of scandal. The loudest of them even resulted in the resignation of one of the ministers.
It all started innocently enough. In 1927, Gdynia, which was expanding at a pace, began to feel an acute shortage of the Main Post Office. Therefore, a decision was made to build it. The erection of the building was the responsibility of the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs. It was headed by Bogusław Miedziński - one of Józef Piłsudski's closest associates!
Engineer Ruszczewski steps into action
Unfortunately, Miedziński did not care for the slogans of moral rehabilitation proclaimed by the Marshal. Instead of reaching for a proven professional, chose ... his colleague from university as the head of post office construction , an engineer Edward Ruszczewski, whom he had previously employed in his ministry. The spice was added by the fact described by Monika Piątkowska in the book "Criminal life in pre-war Poland". Namely, the minister knew:
Taking power in 1926, Józef Piłsudski preached a moral sanction, unfortunately even his closest associates were unable to resist the temptation.
then Ruszczewski's papers and he knew that they contained an annotation that the Ministry of Military Affairs considered him a blackmailer and that he was included in the "black list" of suppliers who deceived the military.
Such a devastating opinion in no way discouraged the prominent Piłsudski who in August 1927 forced the candidacy of his old friend. It was going to end badly for both of them.
For now, however, Ruszczewski has received a warm job with a huge, for those times, salary of five thousand zlotys (approximately 50,000 modern zlotys!). The first thing the newly appointed manager did was to buy a suit and a car financed with ... money to build a post office . Nice start. After that, it only got better.
The next step was the establishment of a construction company, in which the main shareholders were Ruszkowski's colleague J. Mikulski and engineer M. Machajski, whom he met on the train. Although the company did not have any capital, by some strange coincidence it won the tender for the erection of the post office building!
The obstacle was not even 30,000 zlotys, required as a deposit. The gentlemen did not have such cash, but they handled it in a very simple way ... by collecting money from the budget of the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs .
The building of the Main Post Office in Gdynia. During construction, the estimated cost estimate was exceeded several times and, as a result, the construction cost more than the Paris Opera House.
After winning the tender, Ruszkowski found himself in an extremely comfortable situation. Theoretically, he was supposed to watch over the interests of the State Treasury, in fact he was filling the pockets of himself and his partners. No wonder then that soon the construction materials started to disappear from the construction site, the engineer's friends and he used to build villas in Orłowo .
As Monika Piątkowska writes: In this way, two wagons of cement, 110 cubic meters of wood and iron disappeared, and the engineer's bank account unexpectedly received PLN 50,000. The abuser also purchased a square in the capital as a substitute.
Edward Ruszczewski did not forget about other colleagues and acquaintances. During meetings in the cozy interior of the Warsaw "Nowa Ziemiańska", he agreed with them that they would set up companies that would deal with deliveries, finishing works and other minor works. Needless to say, those were really lucrative jobs.
For example, Major Miszczewski was paid 30,000 zlotys for the interior design of the post office. He received the same amount for decorating the front of the building with bas-reliefs. Such profligacy was allegedly necessary as the facade was modest .
As a result, the expenses for construction exceeded the assumed cost estimate many times. The initial PLN 1,600,000 turned into PLN 4,800,000. However, this is not the end of the fraudulent engineer scams.
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Very expensive tutorial video
Ruszczewski, as an employee of the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs, also dealt with the preparation of the pavilion of that ministry for the General National Exhibition in Poznań. As part of these preparations, he ordered two films to be shot.
The first was to warn mail clients not to send money in envelopes. The purpose of the second was to present the achievements of the Ministry. Obviously, another good colleague of our engineer, director Aleksander Reich, was commissioned for both films.
As you can guess, he had no experience in this type of productions . Previously, he only shot short materials for the film chronicle of the Polish Telegraphic Agency. Well, but you have to learn new things in life! So Reich decided to get down to something more serious. And when he got down to it, it was full.
First, he collected 24,000 zlotys in advance for his "hard" work (about 240,000 currently zlotys). After he did so, he decided he had to go to Vienna in order to catch movie stars. This trip cost the Polish budget another 50,000 zlotys. It is true that we did not manage to "catch" any star, but Reich bought three scripts movies erotic five and a half thousand zlotys each.
The building of the Paris Opera House. Quite impressive, but the construction of the Main Post Office in Gdynia was much more expensive. Well, you can see the French did not have their Eng. Ruszczewski.
From the Austrian capital, the film crew moved to Poznań, because there is a better atelier. When Wielkopolska got bored, the filmmakers went to Paris for cinematographic studies. By a strange coincidence, the wife of engineer Ruszczewski also went to the Seine. Ultimately, the unruly filmmakers settled in Krynica for a longer time. As Monika Piątkowska writes in her book:
A 1929 poster advertising "The Mystery of the Mailbox". A movie that cost a fortune.
as a result of these trips and mysterious expenses written down on restaurant bills, the film's budget was exceeded by PLN 230,000 , and after the first screening of the plot with the title The mystery of the mailbox , which was no longer an instruction for mail clients, but a naive love story, raised voices to destroy the film.
End of idyll. NIK is taking on cleanup
The streak of the mutual support group has finally come to an end. It turned out that the engineer M. Machajski, who was hanged on the train, is an honest man. He himself was unknowingly involved in the whole affair and could not come to terms with the scams he had inadvertently witnessed. So he decided to do something about it.
At first, in his naivety, he went to the engineer Ruszczewski. For he believed that the site manager did not know anything. He quickly changed his mind when he caught him drinking vodka with the chief defrauder.
After this incident, he directed his steps to Warsaw. There, however, the director of the department of the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs simply dismissed him. This did not discourage Machajski, who sent a letter to Minister Miedziński himself. He received the engineer and assured him that he would look into the matter.
And in fact, after a few days, a one-person commission arrived, which included only engineer Ruszczewski . It was too much. Desperate, Machajski decided in the fall of 1928 to write to the Supreme Chamber of Control and the General Prosecutor's Office.
Engineer Edward Ruszczewski in the dock during the trial, as a result of which he was sentenced to six years in prison.
After arriving at the scene, the NIK auditors found the chaos indescribable. There was no documentation, and the planned budget was exceeded by three million zlotys. According to the experts, the building of the Gdynia post office was overpaid ten times and cost more than the Paris opera! Now nothing could save the embezzlers. The machine of justice has finally kicked off.
Ruszczewski and his associates were detained, and the compromised Bogusław Miedziński had to resign on April 13, 1929. He never regained Józef Piłsudski's trust.
A six-year-old for embezzlement
From 1929, several different cases were pending before the courts. However, the main protagonist of the scandal had to wait for his turn until March 21, 1933. It was then that a trial began in the Warsaw district court, which was followed by all Polish newspapers. During it, several dozen witnesses were heard, including Bogusław Miedziński and former Prime Minister Kazimierz Bartel.
Among the witnesses during the trial of Eng. Ruszczewski, even former Prime Minister Kazimierz Bartel was included. In the photo, he is giving evidence.
The accused himself refused to testify. However, this did not help him in any way, because the verdict announced on May 30 was unambiguous. The court found the accused guilty and sentenced him to six years in prison from which he was given a year under the just announced amnesty.
Ruszczewski was also deprived of his civil rights for six years. Additionally, in a civil action, the defendant was ordered to pay PLN 1,344,963 for the benefit of the State Treasury and PLN 8,505 for court and defense costs.
Less than a year later - on April 9, 1934 - the appellate court reduced the sentence to five years, as it had previously forgiven the year under an amnesty. Whether the entire amount awarded was collected, unfortunately the press did not disclose that.
Sources:
Basic:
- Monika Piątkowska, Criminal life in pre-war Poland . Grandesy, cashiers, diamonds , Polish Scientific Publishers PWN, 2012.
Complementary:
- "Illustrated Daily Kuryer" 1933.
- "Goniec Częstochowski" 1933, 1934.