Organizational preparation of central public administration bodies to manage the implementation of defense tasks. Part I. Characteristics of defense tasks carried out by the supreme government administration bodies, selected issues

Abstract

This article constitutes the first part of the research report on the organizational preparation of the supreme bodies of government administration, specifically the administrative offices serving them for the management of defense tasks. This part is devoted to the characteristics of the concept and scope of defense tasks, their objective and subjective approaches in the context of the Polish law in force, the content of strategic documents, and planning practice. The awareness of the enormity of tasks in the matter in question and the responsibility for their implementation that rests on the Council of Ministers, Prime Minister, and ministers in charge of the leading departments of government administration will provide the basis for the assessment of the current state of the organization. The evaluation will be performed in terms of the liability of the government administration for defense issues at the central administration level to determine the causes and necessary corrective actions and even construction ones in the absence of appropriate solutions. The scope of defense tasks is extensive and concerns, among others, strengthening the defense of the state, preparing the population and public property for the wartime, and opposing external threats to the state, armed aggression, and fulfillment of allied obligations. Thus, the legislator of the constitutional system and the ordinary legislator entrusted tasks to all authorities and government administration bodies and other state bodies and institutions, local government bodies, entrepreneurs, and other organizational units, social organizations, as well as citizens of the Polish state. These tasks have been specified in executive acts to the Acts and cover critical areas of state activity and almost all government administration departments and areas of activity of local governments. The supreme bodies of government administration play a key role in this respect. The Council of Ministers, headed by the Prime Minister, has the constitutional role of combining the complex defense activities on a national scale in unity. In contrast, ministers – heads of government administration departments should implement the defense policy in the administration departments entrusted to them.