Administracja rządowa/en

GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION – term used since the period of the second Polish Republic (with the exception of the years 1950 – 1990) with reference to the basic part of the state administration (understood, in the context of a broader concept of → public administration, as the centralised public authority apparatus), which is led by the Council of Ministers, and the head of its employees is the President of the Council of Ministers. G.a. is divided into central (→ central administration) and territorial. In terms of the subjective approach the bodies of the central g.a. are: the Council of Ministers, Ministers leading specific government administration departments (these departments, as task and competence groups are specified in the g.a. department act; at present there are 32 departments: from public administration to inland waterway transport; → government administration departments) and central offices leaders, who are directly subordinate to the President of the Council of Ministers or the Minister managing the relevant g.a. department, or supervised by them. Territorial g.a. is divided into joint and non-joint. In the voivodship the head of the joint g.a. and at the same time its body is the voivode, who in the Polish Constitution is depicted as the representative of the Council of Ministers in the voivodship. The position of the voivode is described precisely in act on voivodes and g.a. in voivodships. In particular the following bodies are part of the joint g.a.: regional school superintendent, the Voivodship Conservator and heads of voivodship service units, inspection and guards (police, fire service and inspections, such as sanitary, veterinary or construction supervision) – some of these services, inspection and guards at the county level (police, fire service, sanitary inspection, inspection of construction supervision), while remaining part of the g.a., as district services, inspections and guards are subordinate to the starost as statutorily specified. In principle, in the voivodship the bodies of the joint g.a. do not have their own apparatus (offices) and are supported by the voivodship office, which serves the voivode. The non-joint g.a. is comprised of the territorial g.a. bodies subordinate to the relevant minister or g.a. central body, and legal public entity managers and leaders of other public organisational units performing g.a. tasks in the voivodship. These are, for example, the directors of tax chambers along with heads of tax and customs offices, mining authorities, statistical office directors, and regional directors of environmental protection offices. The central and territorial g.a. offices are staffed by members of the → civil service, headed by the President of the Council of Ministers. The current wording of the civil service act, established since 2015, due to the special status of persons holding high positions in the service does not fully meet the objective existence of the civil service as defined in the Constitution, as the professional, honest, impartial and politically neutral execution of state tasks. In terms of the objective (functional) approach, the scope of g.a. matters includes matters lying within the scope of territorial g.a. bodies, as well as matters statutorily passed as → tasks assigned to bodies→ local government. Local government bodies, in compliance with principles of law, can take over from g.a. territorial bodies specific tasks (→ entrusted tasks) [ H. Izdebski ].

Literature: Prawo administracyjne. Pojęcia, instytucje, zasady w teorii i w orzecznictwie, red. M. Stahl, Warszawa 2016; System prawa administracyjnego, red. R. Hauser, Z. Niewiadomski, A. Wróbel, t. 6: Podmioty administrujące, Warszawa 2011; J. Zimmermann, Prawo administracyjne, Warszawa 2016.