All of Poland has been living since Friday with the “KPO scandal”. Emotions should, however, fall. The case is much more complex than many thoughts – unfortunately it shows the weakness of the state. The government once again lost in the communication field.
KPO scandal, or cash register for yachts?
Let’s start from the beginning. From Friday, all of Poland has been living with a scandal regarding the National Reconstruction Plan (KPO). It is about EU funds that were supposed to help Polish Covid-19 pandemic companies. Of course, the funds were to reach the Polish economy much earlier, but their transfer was blocked. Reason? When the project started, in our country there was still a united right, which, according to Brussels, broke the rules of the rule of law. This was the official reason for the lack of payments for Poland of joint EU money. After winning the election by the current ruling team, Kurek with money was unscrewed. It is true that serious changes in the law that would increase the rule of law did not occur, but the elite from Brussels was enough to change power.
Why do I remind you of the last one? The point is that the very idea of paying subsidies from KPO a few years after the pandemic sounds strange. However, the funds were to go to modernization or diversification of the beneficiaries’ economic activity – it was about building resistance in the event of subsequent crises. And although it sounds convincing on paper, in practice it turned out to be a gate to finance the purchases of already famous yachts and other often very strange ideas.
At this point we come to the first problem: the subsidy program was poorly designed, allowed to make investments that had little in common with the company’s base activity, although everything was right on paper – after all, someone can prepare their business for crisis turbulence creating foundations for a new company, right? And thanks to this thinking, the whole country is now indignant at the idea of a pizzeria with a solarium equipment.
Blood quickly felt the political opposition, which began to accuse the government of “stealing public money”.
In its anti -EU rhetoric, the government somehow helped a confederation, which now suggests that in exchange for “yachts, grills, solariums and coffee machines” fell “on his knees before the Union.”
Communication problem
However, are we actually dealing with the scandal? And yes and no. Everything is a bit like the famous “octopus”, which PO politicians ate in a restaurant, where there was wiretap. Although the words registered on “tapes” were more shocked, most Poles remembered that they had a luxurious dish.
Now it is similar. KPO is divided into many subcategories. The hotel and restaurant industry is only one of them, “valued” at PLN 1.2 billion. The whole program is a matter … about PLN 268 billion! In turn, there are many today to the fact that a few, maybe several million zlotys have been spent on “original” ideas. So it’s an extremely small part!
So where did the scandal come from? From government communication problems. Map with subsidies on yachts “does not apply to payments from KPO for entrepreneurs, but only projects positively evaluated by experts” – this is the answer to the Zasta24 portal from the Communication Office of the Ministry of Funds and Regional Policy. In other words, the famous map is not the base of companies that got money on the frills of their owners! This means that controversial investments must now be simply examined.
Journalist Marcin Fijołek in the post on X pointed out, for example, the famous pizzeria-solar from Wieluń: Yes, its owner submitted a request to the purchase of tanning equipment, but ultimately did not use the grant granted.
The advisor-director from applications for EU funds gave her this idea. The owner previously thought, checked, withdrew. But it is on the map
– a journalist warned against attacking a woman.
It is possible that it is similar with other projects that are controversial. This is suggested by the report that the Zero channel has prepared. A journalist of this top YouTube channel visited some of the most famous KPO beneficiaries. And it turned out that the surprising ideas of their owners were not implemented (it is possible that they also gave up the investment).
And of course, these single examples do not change the fact that all the emotional conclusions should now be checked again. In addition, the criteria that were used should take a magnifying glass, because there are many indications that they were too wide, not very precise and the means were simply distributed too willingly, without a thorough analysis of ideas. It is also possible that potential beneficiaries – as Fijołek suggests – were tempted by advisers from obtaining subsidies, who wanted to obtain the customer.
However, the biggest loser is the government, which lost at every front at the communication level. He did not clearly explain what exactly was on the KPO map, nor did he indicate that controversial ideas are the promil of the program. At least this is the widespread reception.
How Google works does not help either. First, the search engine tells us examples related to the scandal. Only a moment devoted to a deeper search allows you to find out that KPO funds are spent on, among others:
- road beltways,
- Limanowa-Nowa Sącz railway tunnel,
- modern tabor of PKP Intercity,
- modernization of industrial plants, railways and hospitals,
- Offshore terminal in Gdańsk.
However, these are still not innovative examples. However, they are too! It is enough to mention the design of the Intelligent Services Platform (PUI), which “will focus on key diagnostic areas, including the detection of lung and breast cancer by AI, analysis of fractures or pathologies in the chest X -ray.
The Ministry of Digitization has also announced a new support instrument – preferential loans for investments in modern technologies, which can be used by local government units, universities or entrepreneurs. In practice, it is about advanced digital technologies (digitization of customer service, process automation, advanced data analytics, cyber security solutions).
Summary: Is the scandal or is it not?
Well, is there a scandal or is it not? It is because everything we have been observing in recent days shows that we are still living in a cardboard country. It was not possible to create such regulations that would act like a solid sieve – the absurd ideas of some entrepreneurs blocked. At the same time, the government fell in the field of information policy. Currently, all of Poland thinks that almost all KPO projects are as absurd as those that the media talk about. In fact, there are probably not many of them – it is possible that it is about some promil of the values of the entire program.
In addition, too little is said about really interesting projects that can be created thanks to KPO, e.g. the mentioned PUI.
Currently, the authorities should quickly clarify the whole matter and all controversial ideas for which public money has been spent. However, if they do not do it efficiently, they can pay the highest price in politics.
