APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200070029-7
chairman. Other members are designated by the Council of State on nomination of the chairman. The law which set up the chamber dissolved the Ministry of State Control, an agency of centralized administrative power during the pre-1956 era. Most Poles, therefore, favored the chamber as a means of Sejm control over the economic, financial, and administrative activities of the government. In practice, however, the chamber has been purely a formal instutiton and has been gradually shorn of political power and put under strict party control. Over the years its main practice function has been that of a repository for party and state leaders who had become political liabilities.
The Council of Ministers is the principal executive and administrative organ of the government, comparable to a cabinet in Western parliamentary systems. Unlike such a cabinet, however, and like the Polish Government as a whole, it has no policymaking powers; national policy is determined by the PZPR Politburo, some members of which hold important positions on the Council of Ministers. The council is headed by a chairman, elected by the Sejm, who in turn nominates the members of the council, or his cabinet, for Sejm approval. Since the December 1970 change of regime, the post of Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, has been held by veteran PZPR Politburo member and economic expert, Piotr Jaroszewicz.
In 1973, the 35-member Council of Ministers consisted, in addition to Jaroszewicz, of six deputy chairmen, or deputy premiers, and 26 ministers. The ministers were:
- Agriculture
- Chemical Industry
- Construction and Construction Materials Industry
- Communications
- Culture and Art
- Domestic Trade and Services
- Education and Training
- Engineering Industry
- Finance
- Food Industry and Purchases
- Foreign Affairs
- Foreign Trade
- Forestry and Timber Industry
- Health and Social Welfare
- Heavy Industry
- Internal Affairs
- Justice
- Labor, Wages, and Social Affairs
- Light Industry
- Local Economy and Environment
- Mining and Power
- National Defense
- Science, Higher Education, and Technology
- Shipping
- Transportation
- Veterans Affairs
In addition there were two ministerial level portfolios - that of Chairman of the State Planning Commission, and that of Under Secretary of State for Information.[1] The latter is a post created by the Gierek regime in specific response to the near-cabalistic secrecy which characterized the activities of the Gomulka regime and which came under direct fire by the workers in December 1970. The incumbent of the new information post, a close associate of Gierek, serves as an intermediary between the party-government executive and the country's public information media.
In addition to the ministerial role of the Council of Ministers, there are attached to it 18 permanent and numerous ad hoc specialized, non-ministerial committees, councils, and central agencies which deal with detailed planning, recommendations, and subsequent implementation of directives in various sectors of governmental activity. Many of these specialized bodies have been marked or overhauled and other have been newly created since December 1970 in line with Gierek's commitment to a more streamlined and efficient apparatus. One newly created body is the so-called Legislative Council, established in July 1972, which reports directly to the Premier. The council has no legislative powers, but is charged with continual review and analysis of the viability and shortcomings of existing legislation, and with submitting recommendations for improvement. It may, under some circumstances, "initiate research into the creation of laws," an advisory power which gives a more formal underpinning to the executive's long-held practical control over the legislative process. Most significantly, however, the Legislative Council reflects a genuine effort by the Gierek regime to verify the effectiveness of legislation. This is a pragmatic step that is a sharp departure from the practice of the Gomulka regime when voluminous, unworkable, and often contradictory legislation seemingly became an end in itself.
The organizational structure as well as the focus of activity of the Council of Ministers at any given time have generally been determined by the primary area of policy concern of the regime as a whole. Since the late 1960s - and especially since the Gierek regime came to power at the end of 1970 - this concern has rested in the economic sphere; it is this issue that resulted in several structural changes in the Council of Ministers which, under Gierek, are being gradually
10
APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200070029-7
- ↑ For a current listing of key government officials, consult Chiefs of State and Cabinet Members of Foreign Governments, published monthly by the Directorate of Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency.
