Analysis of connections and declarations

Scrutinizing assets without the fluff

Every year, councilors, MPs, and high-level officials submit asset declarations. Most media outlets only transcribe the amounts from the first page. We go deeper. We checked it at the source and know that the devil is in the footnotes. In March 2024, we discovered that one influential local activist omitted shares in a company registered in his wife's maiden name. This was no accident, but a backstage maneuver aimed at hiding real benefits from recent road tenders in the region.

Commercial registers under the magnifying glass

We analyze entries in the National Court Register, looking for companies that were established within the last 7-9 months and immediately started winning sole-source contracts. In the last quarter, we tracked the history of 83 such entities. In 12 cases, we found direct social connections between the owners and decision-makers in the offices. We present hard facts about personnel because numbers don't lie, even if someone tries hard to hide them behind a complex holding structure.

Night shifts in laws

The most interesting things often happen 48 hours before a vote. That's when small, innocent-looking additions appear in draft laws. One such paragraph can change the flow of huge amounts of money. In June 2023, we tracked a change in waste management regulations that directly favored 4 specific sorting plants in western Poland. Our analysis showed how a comma in the wrong place opens the door for selected companies to bypass environmental standards.

Small team methodology

We are not a large editorial office in a skyscraper. Our team consists of 4 people who can spend 14-16 hours on a single Excel sheet. Every report we publish undergoes verification in three independent databases. We don't look for cheap sensation; we are interested in the mechanism. If an official earning 7,400 PLN net per month suddenly buys a third apartment without a loan, we ask specific questions about the source of funding. It's tedious work, but it's the only way to show what's really happening behind the scenes of power.

Fact-based reports

In 2024, we delivered 47 detailed analyses. Some of them led to municipal councils having to renegotiate terms with energy suppliers. We don't promise to fix the system in one day, but we provide concrete knowledge. We check the response time of offices to public information requests – on average, it takes them 11 business days, although legally it should be faster. We record every such delay because we know that time is the best ally for those who want to hide something.

You might be interested in our latest analysis regarding promotion spending in 3 selected counties – the report is 17 pages long and contains a full list of invoices. Download the county spending report.