The Ministry of the Interior and Administration (Polish: Ministerstwo Spraw Wewnętrznych i Administracji, MSWiA) is an administration structure controlling main administration and security branches of the Polish government. After the 2011 Polish parliamentary elections, it was transformed into two ministries: Ministry of the Interior (Minister: Jacek Cichocki) and Ministry of Administration and Digitization (Minister: Michał Boni). It was recreated in late 2015.
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History and function
The ministry was founded in 1918 as the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Ministerstwo Spraw Wewnętrznych). It has gone through several reforms, including partial splits and mergers, throughout its history.
Following the abolition of the Security Office (UB) in 1954, auxiliary departments, including departmental hospitals, nurseries, and the Konsumy retail chain, were transferred from the UB to the Ministry of Interior, headed by Władysław Wicha. First of all, the Ministry of Internal Affairs took over the competences related to the resident registration and registration of the population, passport matters (which were soon returned to the security service), supervision over the Citizens' Militia, ORMO, KBW, and the Border Protection Force as well as the State Fire Service and the Prison Service.
On 14 July 1983 The Act "on the office of the Minister of Internal Affairs and the scope of activities of the bodies subordinate to him" was adopted; the Voivodeship Militia Headquarters (Polish: Komenda Wojewódzka MO) were replaced with Voivodeship Offices for Internal Affairs (Polish: Wojewódzki Urząd Spraw Wewnętrznych), and similar steps were taken at the district and regional levels.
Massive changes began in the ministry following the appointment of Krzysztof Kozłowski, a senator on the Solidarity list of the Civic Parliamentary Club, as Deputy Minister on 7 March 1990.
During a reform of the Polish government in 1996, the administration branch was merged into the Ministry and it was renamed to its current name (on 24 December).
Powers and responsibilities
Traditionally, it is one of the most important governmental cabinet positions in Poland,
The ministry is responsible for the following:
The general interior security of the country, with respect to criminal acts or natural catastrophes
including the major law-enforcement forces (see law enforcement in Poland)
the Polish National Police (Policja)
the Polish Border Guard (Straż Graniczna)
Civil defence
the State Fire Brigade (Straż Pożarna)
Search and rescue and the oversight of ambulance services
the granting of identity documents (Polish passports, identity cards) and driving licenses through the network of voivodeships
relations between the central government and local governments (except in the case of regional development, which is undertaken by the Ministry of Regional Development)
logistics and organization of political elections, at the national and voivodeship levels (but the results of the elections are overseen by the Supreme Court of Poland)
regulation of immigration and preventing illegal immigration
integration and registration of legal immigrants
While the ministry of the Interior supervises police forces, it does not supervise criminal enquiries; criminal enquiries are conducted under the supervision of the judiciary.