Instytut Nauk Społecznych Akademii Podlaskiej w Siedlcach
Abstract
The changes which took place in the structure of state after 1990, and
especially in the structure of subordination of the civilian and military secret
services, influenced the system of their control and supervision.
The system of their control should be constructed in such way that it must
force the institutions which control the secret services directly or indirectly to
work well, and to achieve the assumed goals in the sphere of the internal and
external state security. Both political and, first of all, practical questions indicate
such necessity.
Civilian and military secret services, as an important element of the
executive power, have always interested politicians, the representatives of
several disciplines of science as well as other circles.
These services, parallel to the military forces, are still one of the most
important elements of the political system.
As practice shows secret services have often been (and still are) used to
achieve and keep the power in the state.
The right placement of these secret services in the system of the
democratic state and the proper control (also the parliament’s control) has an
extremely important meaning for the functioning of the state.
The questions of the control over both civilian and military secret services
is the subject of discussions, disagreements and also real conflicts in many
groups as well as civilian and military institutions.
It deals both with aims, forms and the extent of control as well as with the
professional skills of the people who control these services, practical usage of
the information won by the secret services as well as the affairs encompassed
by the highest standards of strict discipline as far as the extent of keeping the
secret is considered.
The literature dealing with the control of the public administration is very
rich where the opinions of many authors are presented. It is the complicated
mater which has many meanings and forms of realizations. All of them can be
resolved into a notion under which we can understand certain activities
including: the observation and analysis of the activities of the units which are
under the control, comparing the reality with plans, coming out against the
disadvantageous phenomena and signalizing the proper authorities the
observations, which have been made, without deciding about the course of
actions of the controlled unit.
Next, the control of the parliament should be perceived as a special kind of
control because it embraces not only the authorization to get the knowledge about
the actual state of affairs but also to estimate certain actions or plans of other state
organs through the enforcement of the political constitutional responsibility.
The foregoing statement, in my opinion, may be attributed to the control
performed by the parliament over the civilian and military intelligence, counter –
espionage and Central Anti – Corruption Bureau.
The control functions of the parliament – this is the range of its powers
marked by the political character of this body, which represents the Nation,
analyzed on the background of rule of the powers division. This rule demands
preservation (and the compliance) of certain balance between the legislative,
executive and judicial power, which results from the provisions of the
constitution of the Republic of Poland of 7 April 1997.
We should concentrate on the fact that in our constitutional tradition the
above balance has never been ideal because we have the predominance of the
parliament in the relationships with the executive power. According to the valid
doctrine we distinguish general control instruments of the parliament which can
be used by the chamber or the committee within the limits of the realization of
the control function as well as the detailed procedures of a different character.
Writing about the parliament’s control of the Polish secret services we should
keep in mind the following services: Agency of International Security (ABW),
Agency of Intelligence (AW), Military Counter – Espionage Service (SKW), Military
Intelligence Service (SWW), Central Anti – Corruption Bureau (CBA).
The control of the activities of the civilian and military secret services, of
the supervising organs is performed by the following subjects of the parliament:
by the plenary sessions of the parliament, the parliamentary committee,
individual members of the parliament.
The specialized organ of the parliament which controls the civilian and
military intelligence and counter – espionage as well as Central Anti -
Corruption Bureau is the Parliamentary Committee of Control of Secret
Services. This committee was established by the resolution of the Parliament of
the Second Tenure of 22 June 1995.
The way of this creation, the rules and the range of its activities was
described in the resolution of the Parliament of the Republic of Poland of
27 April 1995 dealing with the changes of the Parliament’s statute.
The consultative character of the Secret Services Committee is not
sufficient for the effective investigation and explanation of affairs connected with
the activities of secret services as well as the subjects that supervise them. This
is why we should consider investing it with authority of Investigating Committee
which would undoubtedly enable it to discipline the people who stand face to
face with it, as far as their attendance, demanding information from them and
their hearing is considered.
In order to have the control of secret services that could serve its turn it
should meet the following criteria: it must be, first of all, impartial and
competent, moreover it should be equipped with means which would warrant
the effectiveness of activity. The proper execution of tasks by the controlling
organ requires providing it with the proper authorities
