Any misuse of Recovery Plan funds will be accounted for - minister
Poland's funds and regional policy minister has vowed that any possible cases of misused funds under the National Recovery Plan (KPO) will be clarified and if abuse found the funds will have to be returned.
Katarzyna Pelczynska-Nalecz's pledge follows Thursday's media reports that some hospitality and catering businesses (HoReCa) spent their grants on items such as yachts, furniture and a virtual shooting range.
The Regional Prosecutor's Office in Warsaw said on Friday it had launched ex officio verification proceedings following the reports of irregularities in the granting of subsidies from the KPO.
On Monday, Pelczynska-Nalecz wrote on the X platform that "Where doubts arise regarding the support for investments with funds from the KPO, they will be settled, and if any violations are found, beneficiaries will be requested to return the funds."
She argued that for 21 years, investments from EU funds had been conducted according to the highest standards, with open competitions, regulations, expert opinions, and oversight by supervisory institutions. She added that the KPO follows the same principles, and an additional innovation has been introduced, a public website with maps of investments and beneficiaries, ensuring full data transparency.
Although transparency allows for public scrutiny, used by citizens who raise objections to selected projects, Pelczynska-Nalecz wrote, large programmes can be subject to both expert errors and attempted abuse, however, procedures exist to rigorously detect and correct them.
She also wrote that, in the HoReCa programme, the turnover threshold was lowered from 30 percent to 20 percent in the second stage of the application process to achieve the required project quota specified in the KPO.
"First, we opened the competition to the most disadvantaged, and then, when the quota was not met, to those less disadvantaged. This is standard procedure," she added.
Earlier on Friday, Pelczynska-Nalecz said the disputed programme represented only 0.6 percent of the KPO and targeted SMEs hit by COVID-19.
Deputy Funds Minister Jan Szyszko announced on the same day that additional inspections would be carried out in the HoReCa SME sector, with preliminary results expected by the end of September. He said the irregularities came to light a few weeks ago and led to the dismissal of the head of the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development (PARP) at the end of July.
Acting PARP head Krzysztof Gulda later said inspections were already under way but would be expanded to all partners in the programme. If misuse is confirmed, contracts may be terminated and funds reclaimed.
Also on Friday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he would not accept any misuse of KPO funds and expects swift decisions, as well as the revocation of funds in the event of abuse. He declared that consequences will be imposed regardless of position or party affiliation. He added he had spoken to Pelczynska-Nalecz and expected a full assessment of every zloty spent under the scheme, with swift recovery of unjustified expenditures.
On Monday, Tusk told a press conference that Pelczynska-Nalecz was expected to explain each element of the procedures for allocating KPO funds for HoReCa investments at the Tuesday's cabinet meeting.
"After this, I will have sufficient information to make decisions, including personnel decisions if necessary," he said.
Tusk added that "the problem with the KPO" was due to the fact that Poland's funds had been frozen by Brussels due to concerns over the rule of law under the former Law and Justice (PiS) and "Poland might not have had enough time to spend them."
"Therefore, various ways were sought to get as much money to Polish companies as quickly as possible, otherwise, these funds would simply be lost... as a result, the funds minister decided to 'relax the procedures.'"
The KPO provides EUR 59.8 billion for Poland, including EUR 25.27 billion in grants and EUR 34.54 billion in preferential loans. Poland has so far received PLN 67 billion (EUR 15.8 bln) from the fund.(PAP)
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