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Polish ex-ambassador to US Schnepf claimed unwarranted allowances: report

PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk 13.06.2017 12:02
Ryszard Schnepf, a former Polish ambassador to the US and Spain, received hefty cost-of-living allowances for his family in breach of rules governing such pay-outs, Poland’s Super Express tabloid reported on Tuesday.
Ryszard Schnepf. Photo: flickr.com/U.S. Department of AgricultureRyszard Schnepf. Photo: flickr.com/U.S. Department of Agriculture

Schnepf was Poland's ambassador to Spain in 2008-2012 and then for four years served in Washington.

He received a total of around PLN 448,000 (around USD 120,000, EUR 107,000), despite his wife being employed at public broadcaster TVP at the time, according to Super Express.

Under Polish rules, such an allowance could only be granted if his wife, Dorota Wysocka-Schnepf, was not employed.

Super Express said his wife was worked for TVP from October 2004 until June 2016.

The tabloid added that Poland’s foreign ministry was likely to refer the case to court.

Schnepf told Super Express that he did not recall "ever declaring in writing that my spouse is not working. Moreover, the fact that she was working at TVP was widely known in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and further afield.”

He added he welcomed news that the foreign ministry could take the case to court.

“I understand that the ministry is referring complaints against itself because... it is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that is responsible for calculating an ambassador's salary.”

Super Express reported that Schnepf lived in luxury both in Spain and the United States.

It added that in Washington, he used a property which was purchased and fitted out by the Polish foreign ministry, then headed by Radosław Sikorski, for over PLN 60 million.

(pk)

Source: Super Express/PAP

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