Public money without brakes. How did the government spend billions on stupidity and scams?

The same mechanics has been operating in Poland for years. erstwhile you deficiency money, politicians go to taxpayers. all year we hear about more and more stupid and more oppressive ideas. They are aimed at full surveillance of all entrepreneur. The data collected allows you to make more clever control tools. As a result, an entrepreneur who drives our economy either gives up or has to pay always higher taxes and contributions.

So before politicians one more time say that something needs to be improved, sealed and regulated, it is worth remembering 1 basic issue. It's about how stupid, sloppy and unresponsible taxpayers' money is spent erstwhile it goes to state money. And we're not talking about insignificant mistakes here. It is about billions of zlotys that disappeared in systems created without control, in projects without sense, in decisions made on the knee or under the political request of the moment.

Therefore, this text is not just a communicative of waste. This is simply a text about a country that likes to be harsh towards a citizen, but amazingly mild to its own inability. About a country that can teach an entrepreneur for hours, how to run a business, and at the same time, without blinking an eye, dissolve billions of zlotys in a strategy that nobody truly controlled (details further in the text). About a country that first messes with public money and then comes back for more.

The first example is textbook. due to the fact that if individual wants to realize what it looks like to be an costly irresponsibility dressed in the language of "a unique situation", they should start with covid allowances.

Almost 9 billion PLN for covid allowances – and no 1 could control it

The years 2020 – 2022 are a period of many tense movements, generated by more social expectations and the request to show in the media that the government has anything under control. Years later, we can say that the ideas that came up and were put into practice were among the most costly and most meaningless in the last decades of our country.

According to the findings of the ultimate Audit Chamber in 2020 – 2021, nearly PLN 9 billion was spent on covid allowances, and the full strategy of granting and withdrawals was assessed negatively. NIK pointed out that the Minister of wellness and the president of the NFZ did not guarantee effective supervision of the preparation and implementation of this mechanism, and the failure to carry out controls created a hazard that any of the funds unduly spent could no longer be recovered.

That's where we get to the point. The problem was not that medical personnel would get extra money to work in highly hard conditions. The problem was that the state created a flawed system, put billions into it, and practically turned its eyes off. It's kind of like individual opened a safe, scattered cash all over the room, and then announced that counting bills would be inelegant now.

NIK found that the system's drawbacks allowed for the payment of allowances to unauthorised persons, and the same individual even repeatedly for the same period over the limit of PLN 15,000. In utmost cases there were payments of up to PLN 41.5 1000 per month. The mechanics so premium not so much a real commitment to the hardest work, but alternatively the ability to fit into poorly designed rules.

The concrete cases described by NIK were even more absurd. In 1 of the Szczecin hospitals, supplements of up to PLN 15,000 were paid for occasional short-term contacts with patients with suspected or infected SARS-CoV-2. We're not talking about months of hard work, but sometimes about a single consultation or a fewer minutes of contact.

NIK besides described situations in which the number of persons collecting allowances was grotesque in relation to the real number of beds or covid patients. In any cases, there were up to 31 staff members per covid bed or 23 persons per patient.

But the worst part is that this mess wasn't just a consequence of the rush of the first weeks of the pandemic. The allowances were paid for almost 2 years, from May 2020 until the end of March 2022, and nevertheless the basic principles were not orderly and an effective verification strategy was not in place. NIK indicated that even the documentation of direct contact with patients was not decently regulated, so that any operators were incapable to confirm whether the persons to whom the allowances were paid actually fulfilled the conditions. So the classic: we pay first, then possibly 1 day we'll check who's right and what.

That's why the issue of covid additives is so important. It shows the model of the state's operation in pure form. First comes the slogan: “We must act immediately”. Then laws are created that are imprecise, shaky and susceptible to different interpretations. Then there's immense money. And in the end, it turns out that no 1 knows precisely how much was wrongly spent, to whom and whether anything can be recovered. NIK wrote straight about the advanced probability that any of these measures would should be considered lost.

Currently, proceedings are pending, and no 1 has been straight punished in public.

Temporary hospitals – hundreds of millions for empty halls, rents and readiness to treat, which was frequently absent

In theory, they were meant to be a symbol of the state's readiness to "fight the pandemic". Large halls, stadiums, exhibition centers, rapidly adapted spaces that were expected to save the wellness strategy from breakdown if needed. In practice, a crucial part of this task proved to be an costly spectacle, for which taxpayers, of course, paid for the organization.

The ultimate Audit Office established that PLN 941.6 million was allocated to the establishment, operation and liquidation of all temporary hospitals. Of this, over PLN 612.6 million was spent in a non-target and inefficient way – on 14 facilities located in large-area buildings, i.e. stadiums, performance halls and exhibition centres. NIK indicated that decisions to make many of these hospitals were taken without a reliable analysis of needs, without cost calculation and without any real situation.

This is the minute erstwhile the state stops managing the crisis and starts managing its own image. due to the fact that the stadium turned into a infirmary looks impressive. The marketplace hall full of beds is awesome on TV. Photos, briefing, conference, communicative about mobilization, scale, responsibility. Only that tv staff does not show the most important: who pays for it and whether it was essential at all.

NIK calculated that the average cost of setting up, operating and decommissioning temporary hospitals in large-area facilities was almost PLN 149 1000 per bed, and the cost per patient amounted to almost PLN 36 thousand. It was about twice as much per bed and almost 4 times more per patient than in temporary hospitals organized in facilities previously intended for the provision of wellness services. In short, the state has chosen 1 of the most costly forms of organisation and has yet to do so on a large scale.

You can see even better the absurdity of the full operation erstwhile you look at circumstantial cost positions. The temporary infirmary itself at the National Stadium absorbed PLN 36.4 million in rent, PLN 8.5 million in operating costs, PLN 4.3 million in protection and PLN 1.9 million in method charges.

And it's not over. any of these facilities were maintained even erstwhile they were not active. From June to November 2021, any of them functioned as alleged passive hospitals – full prepared to start, but without medical personnel and without real treatment of patients. Over 11 million PLN in rent and another charges were paid for the same period of inactivity of the infirmary at the National Stadium. In Wrocław it was PLN 6.9 million, in Poznań it was PLN 6.9 million, and in Łódź it was PLN 3.7 million.

There are besides textbook examples. NIK stated that almost PLN 31.5 million were spent on the 3 facilities that were created, but which were yet not launched. Of this amount, over PLN 29 million was consumed by a temporary infirmary in the Netto Arena in Szczecin, where not a single patient was admitted.

NIK indicated that neither the Minister of wellness nor the Prime Minister carried out a systemic analysis and evaluation of the formation, operation and liquidation of temporary hospitals in terms of organisational and financial efficiency. This means that the state entered into the operation for almost a billion zlotys, not building a appropriate mechanics to check whether this money is spent rationally.

Additionally, NIK showed something even more uncomfortable. From March 2020 to April 2022, the cost of maintaining readiness to treat covid patients amounted to around PLN 7 billion, while little than PLN 5 billion were spent on actual treatment. In another words, over PLN 2 billion more cost to keep readiness than to aid patients.

Currently, proceedings are pending, and no 1 has been straight punished in public.

Justice Fund – erstwhile money for victims becomes political prey

According to the findings of NIK, the financial economy of the Fund was conducted with a gross violation of the basic principles of public finances, including transparency, intent and savings of expenditure, and the full amount of irregularities found amounted to nearly PLN 270 million. What is peculiarly important, the NIK pointed out that the measures that should be primarily targeted at helping victims of crime and the re-adaptation of erstwhile detainees were spent to a large degree not intentionally and economically

Controls on beneficiaries of the Fund described overpriced prices of services, expenditure far from marketplace value and aid which did not in practice meet the basic needs of the recipients.

But present this communicative besides has a much heavier procedural dimension. This is not just a phase of reports, commissions and media suspicions. According to current communications from the National Prosecutor's Office Zbigniew Ziobro is formally suspected in an investigation into irregularities in the Justice Fund. The D.A. informed that the evidence gathered allowed 26 charges to be filed. The scope of these allegations according to the prosecution concerns a number of actions taken between 2017 and 2023 as the Minister of Justice. We are talking about exceeding the powers and failing to fulfil the duties of the service, manual control of competitions, allowing unauthorised persons to conclude contracts, to tolerate the allocation of funds to non-formal organisations and to hide documents.

The Sejm waived the immunity of Zbigniew Ziobrze and agreed not only to bring him to criminal justice but besides to his detention and temporary arrest. The Prosecutor issued orders to present the charges and to detain and force him to the National Prosecutor's Office in order to declare charges and interrogation as a suspect.

5 February 2026. The territory Court for Warsaw-Mokotów applied temporary detention for the fishy Zbigniew Ziobry for a period of 3 months from the day of detention, indicating, among others, hiding from law enforcement and justice. A day later, the prosecution issued a BOLO, and on 10 February 2026 applied for a European Arrest Warrant.

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