Poland liquidates Anti-Corruption Bureau: Ukraine’s NABU should learn lessons from it - media
Poland has decided to liquidate the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA), which was established in 2006.
This is reported by the publication Apostrophe, according to Censor.NET.
The body will cease to exist on May 1, 2026.
Its functions will be divided between the police, the Internal Security Agency, and the Tax Administration. A new unit will be created within the police force—the Centralne Biuro Zwalczania Korupcji (CBZK).
Minister of Justice Adam Bodnar stated that the CBA "has lost credibility, become politicized, and ineffective."
"Indeed, in recent years, the bureau has resembled not so much a law enforcement agency as an instrument of internal political struggle. Investigations against the opposition, selective cases, leaks of information—all this has undermined trust," writes the author.
Critics of this decision point out that transferring anti-corruption functions to the police and controlled structures could create an even greater risk of these bodies being used for political control. The liquidation project has legal loopholes, and some of the changes may have been rushed.
Lessons for Ukraine
There is ongoing debate about the effectiveness of Ukraine's anti-corruption infrastructure, the publication writes.
A sociological survey conducted by the Razumkov Center on March 26, 2025, shows that distrust of the NABU, SAP, and VAKS has reached a level of approximately 62-73%.
"This means that the standard of the 'anti-corruption symbol', which is often represented by NABU, no longer works as it used to. The Polish experience shows that when society stops believing in an 'independent anti-corruption activist', this institution becomes doomed. In Warsaw, they did not wait for the system to collapse—they decided to reboot it by force," the article notes.
The Polish authorities explained the reform as an effort to "increase efficiency and eliminate political influence," but experts are skeptical because instead of an independent body, anti-corruption functions will now be performed by the same structures that are subordinate to the government.
"In other words, formally, the fight against corruption will remain, but will independence remain? This is a key question, which, incidentally, Ukraine also faces. Because if tomorrow the anti-corruption system turns into a field of political warfare, it can be "reformed" ten times over, but that will not restore trust.
The CBA was created with the same slogans as the NABU: "independence," "professionalism," "new standards." But in practice, it became a hostage to politics, suspicions, and internal conflicts. And now its liquidation is an admission of the failure of a system that has not withstood the test of power. Ukraine should take into account the experience of its Polish colleagues. Because if society sees not a fight against corruption, but a fight between anti-corruption activists, the end of the system is only a matter of time," the author writes.
The events in Poland are a warning that an anti-corruption body can lose credibility not because of its enemies, but because of its own closed nature and political games. It shows that even the best institutions can lose credibility if they stop listening to society, the article concluded.
