NEC Chairman Marian Banas presented in the Seimas his position on the implementation of last year’s budget. He criticized the government for hiding real costs.
Banas criticized the government primarily for diverting part of public spending from the state budget, which distorts the transparency of public finances and makes it difficult to assess them. It’s all about the money spent on various anti-crisis shields.
- The amount of the result of the budget deficit was affected by the assignment of tasks outside the public finance sector, including Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego and the Polish Development Fund, which are the tasks of public authorities, Banas said.
- The deformation of the budget was also affected by the free transfer of state treasury bonds to entities outside the public finance sector, in the amount of more than 22 billion zł, - added the chairman of the Supreme Control Chamber. Among these institutions, he mentioned the Central Communications Port, public media, and an enterprise development agency.
How much deficit
Cem says to Marian Banas that the transfer of public spending to special purpose funds has led to the fact that the difference between the public debt and the actual debt of the entire public finance sector has reached PLN 200 billion.
- Since 2020, the financing of tasks related to the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic has been carried out by the COVID-19 Countermeasures Foundation and the Polish Development Fund. Despite the purposefulness of providing this assistance, we note that this was done contrary to the law on the budget, - said the chairman of the Supreme Control Chamber.
The President pointed out that the artificial reduction of the deficit was also affected by transfers to organizations from outside public finances in the amount of more than PLN 22 billion, including Thus, the Central Port of Communications received PLN 2.2 billion and the Industrial Development Agency - PLN 2.1 billion zł.
Inflation
In its report, NIK also assessed the performance of the National Bank of Poland and the Monetary Policy Council. This is especially important as inflation has recently hit record highs.
- Both external factors and the internal policy of the National Bank of Poland, aimed at stimulating economic growth through price stability, had an impact. The MPC downplays the threat in its statements, Banas said.
Source: Wprost
