Former Polish government gave 14bn zloty ammunition contracts to inexperienced consortium, investigation shows

Poland’s former Law and Justice (PiS) government awarded a consortium contracts worth 14 billion zloty (€3.28 billion) to produce munitions and build an ammunition factory, even though it lacked appropriate experience, an investigation by a news wesbite has revealed.

According to Cezary Tomczyk, the deputy defence minister, the circumstances around the deal have been “under very close scrutiny”.

Former PiS prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki, however, brushed off the allegations, criticising the current government for abandoning the construction of the ammunition factory.

Przekazując prywatnym firmom kontrolę nad produkcją amunicji dla wojska, rząd PiS nie zabezpieczył interesów państwa. W dodatku firmy te nie mają doświadczenia w produkcji amunicji. Widzieliśmy poufne dokumenty dotyczące tej sprawy.https://t.co/MduwhpeSsf via @OnetWiadomosci

— Węglarczyk 🇵🇱🇪🇺🇮🇱🇺🇸🇺🇦 (@bweglarczyk) August 19, 2024

The deal was first reported yesterday by Onet, a leading news website.

According to its investigation, in April 2023 Morawiecki convened a special committee to identify which entities could produce 155mm ammunition in Poland to reduce the country’s dependence on imports in the light of the war in neighbouring Ukraine.

In May, the then government selected two bids: that of the Polish Armament Group (PGZ) – a state-owned defence group, the largest such enterprise in Poland – and a consortium of three private companies operating under the name Polish Ammunition.

The latter was endorsed by Paweł Borys, former president of the Polish Development Fund (PFR). According to Onet, none of the companies in the consortium – WB Electronics, Ponar Wadowice or TDM Electronics – have experience in producing 155mm ammunition.

Despite this, Morawiecki signed a resolution at the beginning of October 2023 ordering the Armament Agency, managed by the defence ministry, to purchase 155mm shells from Polish Ammunition to be delivered between 2023 and 2026.

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Two months later, after PiS had lost the parliamentary election but before the new government led by Donald Tusk took office, Morawiecki’s cabinet passed another resolution extending the period of ammunition deliveries by Polska Amunicja until 2029.

Both resolutions were given a “confidentiality clause”, meaning that they were not published by the government, reported Onet.

The consortium was contracted with supplying 50,000 rounds of 155mm calibre ammunition for 12 billion zloty – to be financed by the National Ammunition Reserve (NRA) – and building a new ammunition factory in Ząbkowice Śląskie for 2 billion zloty.

According to Onet, after the Tusk-led coalition took power, the defence ministry was contacted by arms companies whose bids had been rejected and who claimed they were better suited to produce the ammunition.

After reviewing the allegations, the ministry put the programme on hold.

The defence ministry is also considering notifying the public prosecutor’s office in connection with deliberate misrepresentation towards, among others, the prime minister, and abuse of official position by Borys, reported Onet, citing internal documents it had obtained.

Poland has announced a €427 million programme to increase ammunition production in response to growing demand amid the war in Ukraine.

Its efforts to ramp up production this week received EU backing https://t.co/iZki41PIoW

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) March 30, 2023

Following the publication of Onet’s investigation, deputy defence minister Cezary Tomczyk confirmed in a social media post that “the ‘ammunition scandal’ has been under very close scrutiny by civilian and military special services for several months”.

Prime Minister Tusk, meanwhile, accused his predecessor of using the programme as a business opportunity.

“Mateusz, everyone has known for a long time that you can do business on ventilators, masks, visas or generators,” Tusk wrote to Morawiecki on X, listing the scandals PiS is accused of causing. “But that [you can do business] on ammunition too, and for 14 billion?”

Panie Donaldzie, gdybyś wtedy rządził – czekałbyś na dostawę niemieckich hełmów, a nie budował fabrykę polskiej amunicji.

— Mateusz Morawiecki (@MorawieckiM) August 19, 2024

“Donald, if you had been in power at the time – you would be waiting for the delivery of German helmets, not building a Polish ammunition factory,” Morawiecki responded, referring to allegations regularly made by PiS that Tusk is a tool of German interests.

In a separate post on X, Morawiecki wrote that those currently in power are “bothered” by the construction of an ammunition factory.

“Confidential documents in Onet, stopping the construction of an ammunition factory for the Polish army. This is what caring about Poland’s security looks like when there is a war going on behind our eastern border,” the former prime minister wrote.

The opposition PiS party has criticised the government after Poland received only 0.4% of the EU’s newly announced spending on ammunition production.

But the government points out that applications for the programme were submitted when PiS was in power https://t.co/37PNTdIFeg

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) March 18, 2024

Main imaged credit: Kancelaria Premiera / flickr.com (under public domain)

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.