Politics

Over EUR 8 mln ‘unduly’ dished out on COVID-19 bonuses in Poland: report

The National Health Fund (NFZ) has found that PLN 35 million (EUR 8.13 million) from the COVID-19 Response Fund was “unduly” spent on bonuses for healthcare staff.

On Monday, the announcement was made by Poland’s Supreme Audit Office (NIK) on the basis of reports it had received from the NFZ.

“The audits carried out in provincial NFZ offices show that PLN 35 million (EUR 8.13 million) from the COVID-19 Response Fund have been unduly spent on benefits for healthcare staff,” NIK reported, adding that “PLN 25 million (EUR 5.8 million) has been already recovered, and that court proceedings are underway to recover the remaining PLN 10 million (EUR 2.3 million).”

In the years 2020–2021, the post of health minister was held first by Łukasz Szumowski (to August 2020), and later by Adam Niedzielski.

Last September, NIK negatively evaluated the implementation of decisions taken by the then-health minister regarding additional COVID-19 bonuses. In the years 2020–2021, spending on COVID-19 bonuses totaled nearly PLN 9 billion (EUR 2.09 billion).

According to NIK, both the former health ministers and NFZ head failed to properly control the implementation of their decisions and to respond to the improper implementation of bonus contracts signed by hospitals and emergency services.
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