The Ministry of Treasure Office in Warsaw in 1944–1950

Abstract

The Ministry of Treasure was established by the Act from December 31^st, 1944 about establishing the Provisional Government of the Republic of Poland. Its competences concerned financial matters and financial policy of the state, taxes, duties, budget, as well as loans, monetary and flotation matters, control over banks and insurance companies. As a result of the Act from March, 7^th 1950, the office was converted into the Ministry of Finance. The office of the Ministry of Treasure went a standard path of offices of central institutions from this period. Between 1944 and 1946 it was based on registering correspondence in registers with indexes, and from the year 1947 on registering mail in an evidence aid called the control of records movement (filled like a typical correspondence register). For storing records of matters solved, a subject records plan was used. From the beginning of 1949 one organisational unit of the Ministry attempted marking and registering incoming mail using ununiform subject filing system based on structure, while records of solved matters were still stored using the records plan. Causes of the failure of the attempted reform in office works in the Ministry of Treasure were similar to analogous attempts made in other central institution of this period. The causes lied in frequent changes of organisational structure of offices and unwillingness of staff to implement a new office work system, which was a result of low qualifications of staff members and unsatisfactory system of practical training inside the Ministry.