Law and Justice (PiS) has prepared a report on the condition of State Treasury Companies during the tenure of the current ruling coalition.
As highlighted in the PiS report, “companies with State Treasury shareholdings play a key role in the Polish economy.” They create stock market champions and possess the resources and capital to launch initiatives that support economic development and build Poland’s future.
The 13 December Coalition government inherited the State Treasury Companies in very good condition after eight years of United Right rule: market-active entities executing and planning ambitious development investments-including in critical infrastructure-while also delivering record profits. Due to a lack of professional personnel, the achievements of those eight years have been squandered in just a year and a half under the 13 December Coalition. As the report states, the condition of most of these companies has significantly deteriorated in just over a year. Unfortunately, the change has been for the worse. This is not a matter of political opinion, but of facts presented in this study.
One example covered in the report is Poczta Polska (Polish Post), where the workforce has dropped from 63,000 to 58,000 employees, with plans to cut another 4,000 jobs. The number of open service windows is also being reduced. As the report puts it, this leads “to the gradual surrender of the market to private operators and the squandering of assets built over decades by a company that constitutes a critical element of the country’s infrastructure.”
Grupa Azoty, PKP Cargo, Orlen, PKO BP, PZU, PGE, KGHM-these are just some of the other cases discussed in detail in the report, which can be downloaded at the end of the article.
“A Return to the Past”
“The 13 December Coalition is in power, so we’re seeing a return to the past-to the times when the Polish economy was barely surviving, and State Treasury Companies were old steam engines struggling to pull the train of development,” commented former Minister of State Assets Jacek Sasin (PiS).
He pointed out that “Orlen, which once drove the Polish economy, is now a company with no ambition, barely making money. It’s exploiting Poles by boosting profits through fuel margins.”
Orlen, once a leader in major investments that were meant to power the Polish economy, no longer plays that role. Today, not only are State Treasury Companies generating significantly lower profits, but they are also suffering huge losses. We’re seeing mass layoffs and abandoned investments. Our report exposes the government’s incompetence and its clear intent to sell off national assets to foreign interests.
“Capital Has a Nationality”
“Capital has a nationality-we’ve always said that. It should be grown, and a pro-investment policy must be pursued. Under PiS, there was growth. Now we have stagnation,” added former Minister of Defense Mariusz Błaszczak.