The Cabinet has approved the "Safe Poland" programme which is aimed at cracking down on crime and corruption and proposes a number of new laws to ensure greater transparency in business dealings, improve the efficiency of combating economic crime and enhance security for the general public.

The local media particularly noted that one of the proposed measures makes it impossible for criminal suspects to protect illegally acquired property by signing it over to relatives. "Today the situation is disconcerting. Many criminals hold the law in open mockery, sometimes treating prison sentences as a calculated risk and very often a risk that pays off well," Prime Minister Leszek Miller said in explaining the reasons for adopting the programme.

(NewsBase 02.ix.02)