The National Reconstruction Plan was expected to be a chance for a civilization leap. At least that's how it was sold to the public. Poland was to receive almost EUR 60 billion from the EU budget to rebuild the economy after the pandemic, modernise infrastructure, accelerate digitisation and support green transformation.
The problem is that these measures are not a gift, but, to a large extent, a debt that the state has drawn on behalf of citizens. In practice, this means that any questionable or even absurd expenditure from the KPO will be paid out of our pockets – from taxes that we will pay in the future. All the more so, erstwhile we find a yacht on the list of projects with photovoltaic panels, sports bridge courses, mobile coffee machines or kebab cooking workshops. It doesn't sound like an investment in the future of the country, it sounds like a catalogue of pleasance for the chosen.
A yacht for more than half a million PLN, financed from public money, presented as an example of innovation, sounds like a joke. However, this is not an isolated case. Under the KPO in Gdańsk, sports bridge courses were co-financed for nearly PLN 380 thousand. In another place – mobile coffee makers bought by the solarium. Virtual shooting range, container gym, kebab cooking workshops, nutritional non-alcoholic beer – the list is long and curiosal. In theory, these projects are intended to be part of the thought of diversifying activities after the pandemic. In practice, they look like a clever bypass to get EU – and indeed our – money for projects that have small to do with rebuilding the state.
It is not surprising, then, the wave of outrage. net users, commenting on an interactive spending map, do not hide anger. Doctors who fight regular for the wellness of patients in overcrowded, indebted wards compose about how they deficiency basic equipment – chairs for chemotherapy, infusion pumps, ultrasound cameras – while hundreds of thousands of PLN go on yachts and bridge courses. MPs Paulina Matysiak and Marcelina Zawisza of the organization Together called it consecutive stealing public money. They pointed out that erstwhile there were no funds for the drug factory, the money was easy found on saunas, ice cream machines, or luxury forms of entertainment.
Minister of Economy Andrzej Domański defends the program, stressing that controversial spending represents only 0.8 percent of the full and that individual cases will be explained. but that argument doesn't convince you. If KPO is specified a immense financial commitment, then all single one, even the smallest percent thrown in the mud, is simply a real million zlotys that we will gotta pay back. In addition, the example goes in advance – if power allows specified relaxation of the criteria, it is hard to anticipate full work from beneficiaries.
It is besides worth remembering that the debt part of KPO is over EUR 34 billion. This means that a crucial part of these funds will return to Brussels – with interest – only from Polish money. There is no "free Union money". These are commitments that increase public debt and its service will burden the state budget for decades. It is all the more incomprehensible to waste even gold for purposes that do not service the country's strategical development.
The authoritative descriptions of the program, maintained in the language of PR propaganda, say that KPO can “see, drinking coffee in a cafe or resting in a hotel lobby”. This wording sounds like an ironic commentary on itself today. due to the fact that in cafes you can drink coffee from a fresh coffee device bought with EU funds, in hotels relax in the SPA area financed from KPO, and on the quay admire the yacht with solar panels. The problem is that for this coffee, this yacht and this sauna we will all pay – not today, but in the future, erstwhile the KPO bill comes to pay.
KPO was to be an investment in the future – modern railways, thermomodernisation of buildings, digital infrastructure, improvement of energy security. In many places, it does finance the projects needed. But erstwhile both strategical investments and extravagant whims go into 1 bag, the program loses credibility. It's like taking a giant debt for the renovation of a house, and spending any money on a jacuzzi in the garden and gold handles, explaining that “they are part of the property too”.
In this situation, transparency and control are crucial. Public funds, peculiarly those from debt, should be spent with the utmost care. Any unjustified expenditure is not only a financial failure but besides a blow to public confidence. due to the fact that if citizens see that the billions of euros they will pay off go to fancy whims, it will be hard for them to believe that any recovery programme makes sense.
KPO could have been a symbol of a smart, long-term improvement strategy. Instead, it increasingly becomes a symbol of how easy large ideas lose to shortsighted interests and clever usage of the system. And this is simply a real problem – due to the fact that the credit will should be repaid, whether the projects implemented will be a real investment in the future or just an effective addition to the advertising folder.
