Polish police reports decline in corruption probes, growing size of bribes.

Text of report by Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita

[Report by Grazyna Zawadka: "If a Bribe, Then a Hefty One"]

There are fewer bribery investigations. But this does not mean that corruption is on the decline.

A variety of anticorruption campaigns and falling public approval of such tokens of gratitude have made the Poles less likely to give bribes. But if they decide to do so, the amounts are higher than not so long ago.

Rzeczpospolita has obtained access to statistics from the National Police Headquarters showing that last year the police found evidence that corrupt officials had taken a total of 15.63 million zlotys in bribes, up by over 100 percent compared to the 6.39 million zlotys in 2012 [sentence as published].

There were 5,512 investigations into corruption in the whole of Poland, 140 fewer than in 2011 (a drop by 2.5 percent). After investigations were closed, it turned out that the number of confirmed crimes stood at 10,805, nearly 1,400 fewer than in 2011 (a …