The head of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister has announced that there will be an investigation into why Poland received just EUR 2.1 million of EUR 500 million in EU funding for increasing artillery ammunition production, under the Act in Support of Ammunition Production (ASAP)
On Friday, the European Commission announced it had allocated EUR 500 million to increase the production capacity of artillery ammunition. The EC’s decision is intended to enable the European defense industry to increase its production capacity to 2 million shells per year by the end of 2025. Currently, these capacities are estimated at just over 1 million per year.
The funding is part of an EU drive to increase the supply of munitions to Ukraine. But so far very few Polish companies have moved to take advantage of the funds and they received only EUR 2.1 million in grants.
“This is truly a scandal,” Jan Grabiec, Head of the Chancellery of the PM, told the TVN24 news channel. “We will conduct an investigation into this matter, both at the Ministry of National Defence and at the level of the Prime Minister’s Chancellery.”
He added that in some cases applications for funding were poorly prepared or that in other cases no application had been filed, and laid the responsibility for this failure at the feet of the previous Law and Justice (PiS) government.
“We can imagine what this means, why no application was received to participate in the tender regarding, for example, the issue of explosives,” he said. “When we remember that the largest NATO producer of TNT in Europe is the Nitro-Chem plant [in Bydgoszcz, Northern Poland], where PiS appointed an aquarist, a specialist in aquarium fish, as the CEO of this company.”
“Later the CEO was changed a dozen more times,” said Grabiec. “Well, we understand what was happening there. There were simply no competent people there to prepare these applications, sign them, and, more importantly, prepare these plants for increased production.”
“I know that personnel changes are currently taking place in companies, including in defense companies,” Grabiec continued. “In addition to the liability of dismissing incompetent people, there is also criminal liability.”
Other countries have managed to secure much more funding than Poland. The Finnish defense sector, for example, will get EUR 32.5 million.
Poland to ask EC for new tender
On Monday afternoon, Deputy Minister of State Assets Marcin Kulasek, referring to the EU funding program, which will support the production of 155 mm ammunition, announced that the government “will submit an application to the European Commission to launch a new tender.”
Kulasek too said that the PiS government is fully responsible for the failure of Polish companies to secure funding.
“Applications had to be submitted from the beginning of October to December 13 last year, when PiS was in power,” said the deputy minister.
The parliamentary elections were held on October 15, 2023. PiS won the plurality of seats in the lower house but came well short of the majority necessary to form a government without coalition partners. In spite of that, President Andrzej Duda, who has the right to appoint the Prime Minister in the first constitutional step, decided to follow the tradition of giving the mission of forming the cabinet to the incumbent PM Mateusz Morawiecki.
After a failed vote of confidence, in the second constitutional step, it is the parliament that can appoint the candidate for the prime minister. Donald Tusk and his cabinet formed with the participation and support of a broad coalition ranging from center-right liberals to left-wing parties secured the lower house’s confidence, but that vote did not take place until December 13.
Kulasek said that only three Polish companies submitted applications for the amount of EUR 11.5 million, and two of them did not meet the required criteria.
“The companies did not receive support from the Polish Armaments Group [PGZ], which was managed by the [Ministry of State Assets],” he said.
Kulasek added that “if we have hard facts about negligence, we do not rule out bringing Jacek Sasin [State Assets Minister in PiS cabinet - PAP] and Mariusz Błaszczak [Defense Minister in PiS cabinet - PAP] before the State Tribunal,” he added.
The funding is part of an EU drive to increase the supply of munitions to Ukraine. But so far very few Polish companies have moved to take advantage of the funds and they received only EUR 2.1 million in grants.
“This is truly a scandal,” Jan Grabiec, Head of the Chancellery of the PM, told the TVN24 news channel. “We will conduct an investigation into this matter, both at the Ministry of National Defence and at the level of the Prime Minister’s Chancellery.”
He added that in some cases applications for funding were poorly prepared or that in other cases no application had been filed, and laid the responsibility for this failure at the feet of the previous Law and Justice (PiS) government.
“We can imagine what this means, why no application was received to participate in the tender regarding, for example, the issue of explosives,” he said. “When we remember that the largest NATO producer of TNT in Europe is the Nitro-Chem plant [in Bydgoszcz, Northern Poland], where PiS appointed an aquarist, a specialist in aquarium fish, as the CEO of this company.”
“Later the CEO was changed a dozen more times,” said Grabiec. “Well, we understand what was happening there. There were simply no competent people there to prepare these applications, sign them, and, more importantly, prepare these plants for increased production.”
“I know that personnel changes are currently taking place in companies, including in defense companies,” Grabiec continued. “In addition to the liability of dismissing incompetent people, there is also criminal liability.”
Other countries have managed to secure much more funding than Poland. The Finnish defense sector, for example, will get EUR 32.5 million.
Poland to ask EC for new tender
On Monday afternoon, Deputy Minister of State Assets Marcin Kulasek, referring to the EU funding program, which will support the production of 155 mm ammunition, announced that the government “will submit an application to the European Commission to launch a new tender.”
Kulasek too said that the PiS government is fully responsible for the failure of Polish companies to secure funding.
“Applications had to be submitted from the beginning of October to December 13 last year, when PiS was in power,” said the deputy minister.
The parliamentary elections were held on October 15, 2023. PiS won the plurality of seats in the lower house but came well short of the majority necessary to form a government without coalition partners. In spite of that, President Andrzej Duda, who has the right to appoint the Prime Minister in the first constitutional step, decided to follow the tradition of giving the mission of forming the cabinet to the incumbent PM Mateusz Morawiecki.
After a failed vote of confidence, in the second constitutional step, it is the parliament that can appoint the candidate for the prime minister. Donald Tusk and his cabinet formed with the participation and support of a broad coalition ranging from center-right liberals to left-wing parties secured the lower house’s confidence, but that vote did not take place until December 13.
Kulasek said that only three Polish companies submitted applications for the amount of EUR 11.5 million, and two of them did not meet the required criteria.
“The companies did not receive support from the Polish Armaments Group [PGZ], which was managed by the [Ministry of State Assets],” he said.
Kulasek added that “if we have hard facts about negligence, we do not rule out bringing Jacek Sasin [State Assets Minister in PiS cabinet - PAP] and Mariusz Błaszczak [Defense Minister in PiS cabinet - PAP] before the State Tribunal,” he added.
Source: PAP, TVP World
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