Operation of the National Preventive Mechanism within the Office... 1. Operation of the National Preventive Mechanism within the Office of the Human Rights Defender On 14 October 2010, the National Preventive Mechanism Department was set up as a result of a reorganisation of the Office. Since January 2011, it has had eight employees with a background in law, education, resocialisation, and politology specialising in resocialisation and criminology. Insufficient staff of the Department did not allow for carrying out all the NPM visits scheduled for 2011, such visits were also performed by Criminal Law Department staff, as needed. The National Preventive Mechanism Department was also supported by personnel of the Offices of Local Representatives in Gdańsk, Wrocław and Katowice. All members of the National Preventive Mechanism Department and all employees of Offices of Local Representatives of the Human Rights Defender act by virtue of law, authorised by the Defender and on her behalf.5 The NPM personnel exercises the Defender’s competence, and their actions are considered actions of the Defender herself. Taking into account all aspects of detention, NPM visits require a multidisciplinary approach. In order to properly check the way in which the detainees are treated, it is necessary to obtain information from a number of sources. It is required, inter alia, to analyse medical records, talk to mentally disturbed patients and evaluate the access of detainees to medical care at the place of detention. Performing the above in a reliable way would be impossible without substantive support and expertise. Yet due to limited funds, experts participated only in 35 visits from the time when the National Preventive Mechanism was set up. In reality, participation of specialists, physicians in particular, should be ensured during each and every preventive visit under the Mechanism. 2. Financing The National Preventive Mechanism Department is an organisational unit of the Defender’s Office. The Defender’s expenses are covered by the State budget, with the Defender being the fund administrator. In 2011, the Sejm cut the budget of the Office of the Human Rights Defender from the planned PLN 36,477,000 to PLN 35,424,000. This cut resulted in a reduced budget for the National Preventive Mechanism from the planned PLN 1,740,000 to PLN 1,265,000. Thus, the tasks of NPM were performed at the expense of other activities of the Defender, and were largely limited. This constituted a breach of Article 18(3) and (4) of the OPCAT. The situation is expected to improve in 2012 as the Human Rights Defender will, in all probability, be granted additional funds for running the National Preventive Mechanism (Article 24(3)(3) of the Act of 22 December 2011 amending the Acts 5  See Article 20(1) of the Act on the Human Rights Defender (Dz. U. of 2001, No 14, item 147, as amended) and § 4 of the Statute of the Office of the Human Rights Defender. 13