WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland’s new government has dismissed the country’s representative to the World Bank, the prime minister said on Tuesday, drawing a rebuke from the central bank that had appointed him to the role.
Closely linked to the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, Jacek Kurski was picked by the National Bank of Poland (NBP) as a representative on the board of executive directors of the World Bank in 2022.
He took on the role after leaving his post as head of state broadcaster TVP, where he implemented changes in its coverage that critics say turned it into a propaganda vehicle for the nationalist PiS government that left office this month.
“The government has adopted a resolution under which the finance minister will be Poland’s representative in international financial institutions, including the World Bank, which means dismissing Jacek Kurski and recalling him from Washington back to the country,” Donald Tusk told a news conference.
However, the central bank said in a statement that by law it was the responsibility of its Governor Adam Glapinski to appoint Poland’s representatives to international banking institutions.
Glapinski, whose links to PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski go back decades, faces accusations that he undermined the independence of the central bank.
Tusk’s Civic Coalition (KO) grouping vowed to put Glapinski before a State Tribunal before the election but has yet to make a final decision on doing so.
A government source told Reuters that the law which gave the central bank the right to appoint representatives to institutions like the World Bank was a legacy from the communist era and that changes to it had been under consideration for a long time.
The source said that the government had decided to act now as in its view Kurski was not qualified for the role he had been put into.
At the time of Kurski’s appointment, the central bank said he was an economist and graduate in international trade, with wide-ranging experience in the public sector.
(Reporting by Alan Charlish; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
