177 audits and irregularities worth PLN 120 billion! How will the government get them back?

The management of public funds in the years 2020-2023 calls for vengeance to heaven – such conclusions come after a conference of the Ministry of Finance and Economy and the presentation of the results of 177 audits conducted in 167 entities, including foundations, associations and 17 ministries.

PLN 120 billion was spent contrary to its intended purpose – this is approximately half of what Donald Tusk’s government currently spends on armaments by taking out a loan from the EU SAFE program. The wealth of the richest Pole in 2026 is just under PLN 28 billion.

How did PLN 120 billion disappear? Willful actions and base motives

The National Tax Administration (KAS) submitted 250 notifications to the prosecutor’s office on suspicion of committing a crime. The amount covered by the notifications is over PLN 106 billion. “The irregularities we found during many audits bear the hallmarks of intentional bad faith. It is difficult to call them a mistake or a wrong interpretation of the regulations,” emphasized Zbigniew Stawicki, Deputy Minister of Finance and deputy head of the National Audit Office. He added that in many audited institutions there were two parallel realities – formal and real.

In a statement, the office emphasized that irregularities “were often the result of deliberate actions taken for base reasons, the source of which was the disregard of the principles of economy, law, order and decency.”

The list of “incorrect actions” is long and predictable, but it is worth citing a few examples:

• spending the funds of the general budget reserve and the special-purpose reserve contrary to the conditions of its use,

• economically unjustified creation of public institutions and entities for specific needs,

• misuse of subsidies and other aid,

• use of funds from the forest fund contrary to its intended purpose,

• defective and unreliable financial statements and accounting books.

– Audit of public funds is an obligation that results directly from the act. The National Tax Administration carries out its tasks reliably and supervises how state funds are spent, emphasized Minister Andrzej Domański.

Closed party system. PiS consistently denies the accusations

As much as PLN 86.65 billion of the total amount concerns the Ministry of Climate and Environment, which revealed gross negligence in the supervision of income from the sale of greenhouse gas emission allowances (ETS). Poland is to pay PLN 5.6 billion to Pfizer for uncollected Covid-19 vaccines.

There are also smaller examples of mismanagement: the Chancellery of the Prime Minister granted 524 targeted subsidies with a total value of PLN 370 million, without conducting an open tender. In the Ministry of Sport and Tourism, subsidies were awarded in this way for PLN 202 million, and in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – for PLN 51.5 million.

In 2024, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said directly that during the PiS government a “closed system” was created, i.e. a mechanism for using public funds, offices and employees in the election campaign for the ruling party. Apart from wrong business decisions, it was also about sponsoring media supporting PiS and bypassing competition commissions in foundations and associations. One of the mechanisms of abuse was, for example, the purchase of hotels by government institutions or their subordinate entities from private persons without any clear purpose.

Representatives of Law and Justice categorically reject all accusations. They claim that the actions of KAS and the prosecutor’s office are purely political in nature. According to PiS politicians, the alleged “billion-dollar scandals” are manipulation of statistics and an attempt to divert public opinion from the country’s current economic problems.

What are the chances of recovering the money and convicting the guilty? People appointed by the previous government still hold key positions in prosecutor’s offices.