LEGAL BASIS AND SCOPE OF ACTIVITY OF THE NATIONAL DEFENCE MINISTER OF THE REPUBLIC OF POLAND Ryszard Szynowski e-mail: szynrys@interia.pl The Cavalry Captain W. Pilecki State School of Higher Education in Oświęcim / University of Dąbrowa Górnicza, Poland Abstract. This article features, frstly, the role of ministers as government admin- istration bodies and, secondly, presents the detailed scope of duties of the National Defence Minister, inter alia, in the feld of: preparing state defence principles, su- pervision over ful flment of defence tasks by state administration bodies, managing in the scope of complying with the general defence obligation, managing the admin- istration of the personnel reserve for the purposes of the general defence obligation, and in other areas. In the further part, the article introduces also the scope of duties of people holding managerial positions in the ministry. Key words: Government administration, military administration, National Defence Minister. Introduction Ministers constitute the most numerous group, and at the same time, oblig- atory category of the Council of Ministers’ members. They are counted among the chief, one-person bodies of government administration, and simultaneously, members of a collegial body, i.e. the Council of Ministers. The appointment of a minister depends above all on political considerations manifested in the form of intra-coalition arrangements. Constitutional regulations (article 149 (l)) provide for the existence of two groups of ministers. The fst one is constituted by the ministers who manage particular sectors of government administration (called sometimes sectoral or departmental ministers), and the second one is comprised of ministers ful flling the tasks delegated by the Prime Minister (called ministers without portfolio or task ministers). Ministers who run par - ticular departments of government administration are always members of the Council of Ministers and participate in its works. The Prime Minister defnes the scope of activity of a minister managing a particular department. Types and scope of these departments are defned by the Government Administration Departments Act (Ustawa o działach administracji rządowej... 1996). The notion of a department should be understood as the structure comprised of central units, i.e. the ministry and central of fces subordinated to the minis-