NIK has some reservations to the biased procedures used in the Ministry of Economy in selecting cash loan funds. Some of the funds did not ensure equal treatment of the entrepreneurs or unnecessarily demanded too many documents from them.
NIK verified effectiveness of the state’s aid for the entrepreneurs who incurred losses as a result of the flood in 2010. The audit encompassed five provinces, affected most by the flood: dolnośląskie, małopolskie, podkarpackie, opolskie and śląskie. The auditors reviewed the aid granted from the Labour Fund, Guaranteed Employee Benefits Fund and 5 of 10 cash loan funds, selected by the Ministry of Economy. The opinions of 278 entrepreneurs obtained by phone were an additional source of information.
The audit showed that the most adequate form of aid were the cash loans for the settlement of losses in the corporate property. They were granted by the cash loan funds selected by way of public tender by the Ministry of Economy. Most entrepreneurs in Poland used that form of aid- nearly 2 thousand. They received more than PLN 74.5 million which made up 78 percent of all the disbursed money.
In five provinces audited by NIK the money was disbursed quickly, to all who met the criteria. The aid of more than PLN 64 million was granted to 1608 entrepreneurs. The level of cash loans ranged from 1.8 thousand to PLN 50 thousand - 72 of the biggest cash loans were disbursed (among 132 entrepreneurs). Only 49 entrepreneurs were refused a cash loan as they did not meet the criteria, e.g. they lacked an entry in the National Court Register or the losses had been settled by an insurer before.
A less popular form of aid were interest-free cash loans of the Guaranteed Employee Benefits Fund (GEBF), which could be used only for the payment of employee salaries. It was similar with the money from the Labour Fund (LF) for the reimbursement of the costs of salaries for employees or the referred unemployed. The money from both funds made up 22 percent of the paid amounts (including the GEBF in 1 percent only). According to NIK, small companies were less interested in this form of aid as they did not have too many employees.
NIK negatively evaluates the manner of selecting cash loan funds by the Ministry of Economy. The committee did not ensure objective and equal treatment of bidders. It did not work accurately, subjectively evaluated offers, even in terms of objective criteria, like the deadlines for personnel preparation for some tasks. The manner of evaluating operational costs of the fund’s work was extraordinarily reprehensible. The lower-cost offers were rated lower and the higher-cost offers were rated higher. NIK draws attention to this reproachable practice as there are some justified fears that the funds may increase the costs of the cash loan service in the future. The new act on special solutions related to the removal of flood consequences does not include the criterion of operational costs in the procedure of selecting funds by the Ministry.
What was the most bothersome for entrepreneurs - as pointed out by the respondents and organisations associating them - was the demand of two funds (The Małopolska Regional Development Agency in Cracow and Karkonoska Regional Development Agency in Jelenia Góra) to provide additional documents, even if tey were not required by the law. Besides, NIK identified some differences in the procedures applied by the funds, which resulted in unequal treatment of entrepreneurs. For instance, the Foundation for the Development of Silesia and Support of Local Initiatives in Opole as the only one did not appoint a property appraiser, relying on the entrepreneurs’ statements. At the same time, the Upper Silesian Agency for Entrepreneurship Promotion in Katowice did not carry out on-site inspections.
The audit revealed one more problem - the lack of homogeneous system for collecting data on affected entrepreneurs so that in case of another flood it is possible to quickly assess the damages and help repair the consequences. According to NIK, the Ministry of Internal Affairs should be responsible for preparing such a database.
