Thanks to changes in the law, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki might subsidize construction investments without competition, mainly of church organizations – writes Monday’s “Rzeczpospolita”.
“Sports facilities for the Salesians, a conference building for the oasis in Krościenko, expansion of the social welfare home at Caritas in Ełk are only a small part of the subsidies provided by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki to non-governmental organizations over the last four years,” we read in “Rzeczpospolita”.
Non-competitive grants
The daily writes that some of the beneficiaries of targeted subsidies from the Prime Minister’s office during Morawiecki’s government were identified thanks to the inspections that officials of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister carried out in recent years, examining the regularity of expenditure.
“Rz” emphasizes that thanks to a key amendment to the Volunteering Act in 2018, the Prime Minister’s subsidies were awarded outside a public competition. When granting targeted subsidies, the office of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki’s government refers to Art. 11b of the Act on public benefit activities and volunteering. It was added to the 2003 Act in August 2018 by PiS.
It reads as follows: “The Prime Minister may commission non-governmental organizations and entities listed in Article 3(3) to carry out public tasks without an open tender, in particular due to important social interest or important public interest.” If it is of an investment nature, “the total amount of funds (…) cannot be higher than 80 percent of the planned estimated cost value of the investment.” But “in particularly justified cases, including in relation to investments of significant importance for the development of the region or local community or for the protection of objects of exceptional historical, cultural or artistic value”, these restrictions do not apply.
Church organizations received the most
“Entities related to the Church benefited the most from this. The meaning of such investments was reversed, pointing out that it is the Prime Minister who commissions public tasks to be performed by entities,” we read.
According to the daily, an analysis of some of the subsidies that were audited shows that entities mainly related to the Church might count on funding for construction investments – contracts with them began to be signed in 2019.
As “Rzeczpospolita” calculates – “PLN 422,000 of subsidy from Prime Minister Morawiecki was received by the Semper Fidelis foundation, which built a community center for Polish children in Ukraine for the Archdiocese of Lviv, over PLN 3 million was received by Caritas of the Diocese of Ełk for the expansion of the Misericordia social welfare home, PLN 700,000. thousand PLN was awarded to the foundation of the Piarist Order for finishing works and equipping the sports facilities of their schools.
The newspaper further enumerates: “Prime Minister Morawiecki donated PLN 3.8 million for the construction of a building for the disabled, the House of the Strong, run by the Sisters of the Resurrection, and PLN 930,000 for the expansion of sports facilities in the Salesian schools in Kniewo. The most – three times, nearly PLN 10 million each during three years – received the association “Diakonia Ruchu Światło Życie” for the construction of the Human Liberation Crusade Center in Krościenko nad Dunajcem (conference and training building). According to OKO.press, the prime minister was persuaded by Henryk Kowalczyk, former deputy prime minister and head of the Ministry of Agriculture of the PiS government and an activist of this oasis movement, for a government subsidy for the investment.
The Chancellery of the Prime Minister does not publish how much in total has been spent on targeted subsidies since 2018 under Art. 11b of the Act on Volunteering.
Source of the main photo: PAP/Andrzej Jackowski