NIK will check how the state protects environment [experts panel]

NIK starts an audit related to the environment protection in Poland. The Polish SAI will have a closer look at the heads of poviats^[1] who are responsible among others for supervising greenhouse gas emissions, making acoustic maps, developing noise protection schemes, issuing permits related to the environment use and waste management. Before the audit an experts panel was organised, during which the specialists expanded on the issues to be covered by the audit.

Experts panel on environment protection in Poland - commented by Daniel Michalecki

Environment protection

According to prof. Marek Górski from the University of Szczecin, the underlying problem with the environment protection in Poland is dispersion of competences and responsibilities. It results from unclear criteria of task division. In the professor’s opinion, the public administration system is ineffective, which can be seen among others in inconsistent and erroneous decisions. Górski is positive that allocation of tasks as well as control and supervision of their execution should lie in the hands of a single professional body.

Józef Neterowicz, expert in renewable energy and environment protection referred to a solution implemented in Sweden. He believes this is a good idea to introduce something like the Swedish Environment Protection Agency in Poland. This specialised institution, financed from the state budget, coordinates and supervises all issues related to the environment protection in Sweden.

An additional agency means additional costs. But maybe its absence will entail even greater losses? Neterowicz showed how dispersed competences result in measurable financial losses. An example? In Cracow an ecological organisation repeatedly appealed against the decision to build a communal waste incineration plant, going from one authority to another. As a consequence, instead of twelve incineration plants, for which Poland has received funds from the European Union, only four are under construction. The city has to pay for that. It does not earn on the potentially profitable activity, loses additional financing and bears costs of prolonging construction works.

NIK is going to start its audit in October. The meeting with experts has shed light on the most critical issues. The audit works will take about three months and the pronouncement on audit results should appear by the end of April next year. ”We don’t only want to pinpoint errors but first of all to help work out good solutions” - says Vice-President of NIK Marian Cichosz who chaired the experts panel. He underlines that if the NIK audit confirms their opinions - if the dispersion of competences related to environment protection is ineffective and the poviat heads are overloaded with costs of public tasks - he will expect that NIK inspectors make concrete proposals of law changes.

[1] Poviat - administrative unit in Poland, equivalent of a county in Great Britain.