Warsaw (Puls Biznesu) – There are huge troubles with EU funds provided for transport. The reason: a nonsense requirement of a manual.
Till the end of August 2006 only PLN 100m (EUR 25.9m), or 2.21 percent was spent out of the transport program SPOT worth PLN 4.5 billion. In order not to lose EU funds, the Ministry of Transport hurried up and increase the spending to EUR 92m at the end of September. The trouble with SPOT is that it is the only EU program with a requirement to deliver procedure manuals. Beneficiaries have to do it to have the funds refunded. The manuals have to wait for months to be accepted, they are corrected many times, change into big books which no one is able to check. No one knows why the ministry demanded the manuals, it was not required by Brussels, nor is it necessary in the other EU programs run in Poland.
The Ministry of Transport did not comment. The Ministry of Regional Development (MRR), which manages the implementation of EU funds, promises improvement.
“There is a new, simplified manual being prepared. We are considering to give up the requirement that the manual is approved by the ministry”, Stanislaw Krakowski from MRR said.
SPOT was supposed to improve the road infrastructure mainly in towns – to build ring roads, bridges or railways. Projects worth PLN 6.2 billion were submitted. 90 applications were approved of, and agreements worth PLN 3.5 billion were signed. Within 30 days the beneficiaries were supposed to deliver the procedure manual. The majority of SPOT projects are worth above several dozens million zloty each.
(PLN 1 = EUR 0.259)