The Supreme Audit Office (NIK) has found “a number of irregularities” in the preparation and functioning of the Polish Territorial Defence Forces (WOT) and has recommended that the WOT be urgently placed under the command of the Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces. The audit statement was published on Wednesday, 28 October.
What the NIK audited
Audit P/25/024 concerned the WOT’s ability to carry out its tasks in 2023–2025. According to the NIK statement, inspectors checked whether the development of the force was properly programmed, whether its organisational structures were planned, and whether it was equipped with military hardware. They also examined whether the equipment was properly stored and maintained, and how rotational training was prepared and conducted in each of the audited brigades. The audit also covered the preparation of soldiers, units and subunits for action in crisis situations.
The Chamber concluded that these processes were not fully enabling the effective performance of tasks, pointing to “a number of irregularities”. It did, however, give a positive assessment of the WOT’s role in crisis management in peacetime.
Recommendation to change command
The most important recommendation is to urgently place the WOT under the command of the Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces. As Interia describes, in line with earlier announcements, the WOT, which reports directly to the Minister of National Defence, was supposed to be subordinated to the Chief of the General Staff in August 2024, but the deadline was postponed.
The NIK also recommended, among other things:
- checking whether the documents regulating the functioning and use of the WOT are correct, up to date and consistent,
- assessing the capabilities currently held by individual units and subunits,
- verifying the assumptions behind the building and development of the force, including the desired level of capability.
Partly classified report
The Chamber stressed that the statement does not present the full findings of the audit, as a significant part of the information about the WOT is classified. As a result, no detailed figures on equipment or training have been made public. At the time of publication, we had not seen a reaction from the Ministry of National Defence (MON) or the General Staff to the recommendations.
