Andrzej Kazik: PFR could not change the rules during the game

Reports of the Polish Development Fund filing mass lawsuits seeking the return of subsidies granted during the Covid-19 period under the so-called financial shields 1.0 and 2.0 due to "reasonable suspicion of any type of abuse" have caused justifiable outrage, especially among business owners.

The Entrepreneurship Council, a group of nine of the largest organizations representing entrepreneurs and employers in Poland, has become interested in this case. In March, it publicly expressed concern about the practice of suing companies based on vague recommendations from the Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA), based on undisclosed grounds. These grounds were so undisclosed that not only pre-trial summonses but also payment claims submitted by the PFR to companies failed to provide grounds for the "suspicion of abuse" but were limited solely to an evidentiary motion, which included a commitment by the CBA to submit documents and information concerning the defendant company to the court upon its request. The CBA, however, openly states that it does not know the specifics of the enigmatic "suspicion of abuse" in this case, as it does not have access to classified data resulting from the CBA's analytical activities.