“This government had all the tools to prepare a program that would not be exposed to ridicule and could fairly allocate the funds. An interesting thing – the European Commission was monitoring the progress of this program. I wonder if it had been informed by the ministry about expanding the criteria to a 20% drop in turnover under the support program for the HoReCa sector. If not – I don’t know how the ministry will explain itself,” said Grzegorz Puda, Minister of Funds and Regional Policy from 2021 to 2023, in an interview with Niezalezna.pl.
We asked why HoReCa spending had not been audited earlier, or if audits had been conducted – why they revealed nothing.
“The program was announced in April 2024, after Donald Tusk’s government took power. Someone should have maintained constant oversight, constant monitoring of how these funds were being used. The recently dismissed head of PARP stated in her official declaration that the ministry had knowledge of these irregularities much earlier. Therefore, the question is – why, when the ministry had this knowledge, when they obtained information that irregularities were occurring, did they not report the matter to the prosecutor’s office at that time? Maybe the idea was to try to sweep the matter under the rug and hope that no one would find out. This is an irregularity of such magnitude, such scale, that it certainly would have come to light anyway,”he said.
The former minister also commented on the recent dismissal of the head of PARP. “The reason for her dismissal was probably something else, and now they are trying to pin the blame for the irregularities on the last head of PARP. Let me remind you that previously, the acting head of PARP was Joanna Zembaczyńska-Świątek. She was the person who, at the time when applications were being collected and criteria were being set, could have prevented this situation” – he said.
By decision of the minister, Joanna Zembaczyńska-Świątek became the acting president of PARP in January 2024. Katarzyna Duber-Stachurska, who was recently dismissed, took over as president of the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development (PARP) in May 2024.
He pointed out yet another aspect of Duber-Stachurska’s dismissal:
“If her dismissal – as the ministry declares – was related to its knowledge of irregularities and abuses, it should have immediately reported the matter to the prosecutor’s office. Unless it had no such knowledge and the reason for dismissing the president of PARP was entirely different”.
Puda also responded to accusations from politicians of the December 13 coalition that the PiS government is responsible for the current way KPO funds are being distributed.
“The truth is that we handed over power when the program had not yet been launched. It had no defined conditions or criteria. The competition was announced in April 2024. This government had all the tools to prepare a program that would not be exposed to ridicule and could fairly allocate the funds. An interesting thing – the European Commission was monitoring the progress of this program. I wonder if it had been informed by the ministry about expanding the criteria to a 20% drop in turnover under the support program for the HoReCa sector. If not – I don’t know how the ministry will explain itself” – said Puda.