Office of State Protection (UOP)

Creation

The Act of 6 April 1990 created the Office of State Protection, whose purpose was to protect the security of the state (art. 1(1)). The same Act provided that the Security Service (Służba Bezpieczeństwa, SB) would be dissolved when the UOP was created (art. 129(1)).¹

SB officers and the new office

The transitional provisions of the 1990 Act stated that once the UOP had been organised, SB officers would be dismissed from service by operation of law (art. 131(1)), and that within 10 days the Council of Ministers would lay down the procedure and conditions for admitting former SB officers to service in the UOP (art. 132(2)). The text of these provisions is reproduced in a 1999 notice as provisions not included in the consolidated text.³

Council of Ministers Resolution No. 69 of 21 May 1990 made the admission of a former SB officer to the UOP, the Police or another unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs conditional on a favourable opinion from a vetting commission. There was a Central Vetting Commission chaired by the Head of the UOP, a commission for central staff and provincial commissions; members of the Sejm and senators were invited to sit on them (§ 1–4).⁴

A favourable opinion required the candidate to meet the statutory requirements and to have the moral qualifications – in particular, not to have broken the law or violated the rights and dignity of others during previous service, and not to have used the post for private ends (§ 8). A negative opinion could be appealed within 7 days to the Central Commission, whose opinion was final (§ 9).⁴

Status in the 1990s

Under the 1999 consolidated text, the Head of the UOP was the central government administration body responsible for state security (art. 1) and reported directly to the Prime Minister (art. 4). The Prime Minister appointed and dismissed the Head after consulting the President, the College for Special Services (Kolegium do Spraw Służb Specjalnych) and the Sejm Special Services Committee (art. 4a(1)).³

The UOP had operational and reconnaissance powers as well as powers of inquiry and investigation, and within the office’s remit its officers had the procedural powers of the Police (art. 6). Interception of correspondence and the use of technical means were ordered by the Head of the UOP after obtaining the written consent of the Prosecutor General; in urgent cases he could order them beforehand, but if consent was not given within 24 hours they had to be stopped and the material destroyed (art. 10). Today operational control by the ABW is ordered by a court (see ABW).^3,5

The Act required the UOP and the Military Information Services to cooperate in preventing espionage and offences against the defence potential of the state (art. 2). According to the explanatory memorandum to the bill on the WSI, it was art. 2 of the UOP Act that provided the first, partial statutory basis for the military services.^3,6

The UOP Intelligence Directorate

According to the Foreign Intelligence Agency, the UOP’s Intelligence Directorate (Zarząd Wywiadu) had separate aims and tasks from the outset, as well as its own staff – including recruitment – finances, technical resources and internal instructions. In the mid-1990s it moved from Rakowiecka Street to a building on Miłobędzka Street, which made it easier to turn it into the independent Foreign Intelligence Agency in 2002.⁷

Abolition

The Act of 24 May 2002 on the ABW and the AW abolished the Office of State Protection (art. 221). The UOP’s separate archive passed to the ABW (art. 223(2)). The agencies began operating on 29 June 2002.^2,7,8,9,10