The head of the Nowogrodziec Municipality Robert Relich decided to refute the opposition councillors’ allegations.
Interestingly, he did so on the Municipal Office website and added the note Mayor Robert Relich responds to Councillors from the Skutecznie i Razem Club.
What does the document say?
Response to Tadeusz Karasiewicz’s allegations
The water-supply issue in Gościszów
The construction of the water-supply network in the village of Gościszów was completed during the first term using the Integrated Regional Operational Programme of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. The construction of the sanitary sewerage system in the first stage was completed in an agglomeration meeting the criterion of 120 RLM, in accordance with the rules for co-financing infrastructure investments from the European Union Cohesion Fund. As part of the project, the surfaces of municipal and county roads in Gościszów, as well as the route from Nowogrodziec through Milików to Gościszów, were restored. Promotional boards confirming the results of the work of the Mayor of Nowogrodziec still inform residents about the EU project in the village. In many forums, the Wrocław Regional Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management presents us as a model project beneficiary.
The construction of the sanitary sewerage system in upper Gościszów is included in the resolution on the Multiannual Plan for the development and modernisation of water-supply and sewerage facilities for 2017–22 […].
The community centre in Gościszów “is in a deplorable condition”
Using EU and municipal budget funds, the village community centre was renovated twice: the toilets, library and folk ensemble hall in Gościszów. The design of a new village community centre is being prepared in order to obtain a construction permit. Once the permit has been obtained and the total investment value confirmed on the basis of the cost estimate, the next stage will involve determining how the project will be financed and setting an investment implementation schedule. [...]
“Poor road conditions”
In Gościszów, responsibility for the poor condition of the roads lies with the Bolesławiec County local government: in upper Gościszów, on the roads toward Lwówek Śląski and Gryfów Śląski, and toward Ocice in the area of the Bolesławiec Rural Municipality. Please acknowledge that the county roads from Milików to Gościszów and in Gościszów were reconstructed entirely and exclusively with funds from the Nowogrodziec Municipality, while the remaining roads were also co-financed by the Municipality. [...]
“Failure to obtain EU funds”
The municipality is among the leading local governments demonstrating high effectiveness in obtaining EU and state-budget funds under the Rural Development Programme, the Regional Operational Programme, the Local Action Group and the EU Cohesion Fund. Cumulatively, these amount to tens of millions of euros.
“Snow clearing of roads” – there is no plan
Every year, a plan for clearing municipal and county roads of snow is presented to village heads and councillors during sessions and committee meetings. There is no cause-and-effect relationship between the county road in upper Gościszów and the road in the Special Economic Zone. The municipality clears the roads in the Special Economic Zone first. The road in Gościszów is a county road maintained by the Bolesławiec County Roads Authority. [...]
Response to Kamil Różnicki’s allegations
The sports field in Milików
Construction of the sports field in Milików – the project was completed on the basis of a resolution of the Nowogrodziec Municipal Council. [...]
Response to Michał Sudoł’s allegations
The sports field in Milików
During the first term, I planned the construction of a sports field in Milików, next to the inactive volunteer fire brigade station, with an artificial surface and site development. During work on the draft budget, at the request of a councillor from Zebrzydowa, the Municipal Council decided to move the investment to Gościszów. In accordance with the councillors’ wishes, the sports field in Milików was not built. The construction of the sports field in Gościszów was financed entirely from ROP Lower Silesia funds at my request.
Response to Mariusz Miler’s allegations
Reconstruction of the road from Czerna to Gierałtów
This is a project of Bolesławiec County, carried out in three stages, with the last one scheduled for next year, 2019. The project is co-financed by the Municipality’s budget at 50%. I had sought the road’s reconstruction since 2007. The project is being carried out over three years due to the limited financial capacity of the Bolesławiec County local government. It is astonishing that you hold me responsible for a project that is not a municipal responsibility. Despite my efforts and the funding provided by the municipal budget, you make complaints unsupported by facts. At the same time, you completely ignored, and failed to acknowledge, the work and commitment involved in carrying out investments worth nearly PLN 13 million in Czerna […].
Response to Łukasz Izydorczyk’s allegations
The construction of a sewerage system is not an element of civilisational progress
The construction of water-supply and sanitary sewerage systems, as well as the wastewater treatment plant in Nowogrodziec, is undoubtedly civilisational progress and is undeniably my achievement. To be clear, I greatly appreciate the cooperation and commitment of my closest colleagues: managers, directors and the management of the Municipal Office, as well as cooperation with residents, including village heads and councillors, and the heads of non-governmental organisations, but please remember that my primary role does not diminish the roles and achievements of others [podkreślenie – Robert Relich]. As part of investments serving environmental protection, particularly the protection of residents’ health, I undertook the most difficult task in the Municipality’s history. Why did our neighbours manage to complete the construction of water and sewerage infrastructure by 2006, while our Municipality made no visible investments in this area in previous years? Economic development of the Special Economic Zone in Wykroty would not have been possible without the infrastructure investments undertaken. During my terms of office, the companies Wiefferink, Palgetrans Nowoferm Door and Toyota Boshoku invested here, while Bauer Print Wykroty, Weber Hydraulika, CM3, Rena and Lovink Polska made reinvestments. I recovered not the Municipality but tax money for residents, not for myself, amounting to more than PLN 34 million, in order to balance the economic development of the Municipality and entrepreneurs while preserving the right of Polish enterprises to compete. [...]
The mayor added in his letter:
Regarding the submitted requests:
– gasification
– an audit
– a road-construction plan
– a contract register
and other premises concerning the determination of my remuneration, I perceive this statement as political blackmail, because how else can one understand the condition set for May 2019, linking an increase in remuneration to the fulfilment of, among others, the above conditions.
He also addressed the councillors’ suggestion that the Municipality needs an audit:
Audit – I refuse, its implementation is unjustified and would ultimately mean spending tens of thousands of złoty from the municipal budget. The funds could be allocated to many important tasks serving our residents.
I interpret the RiS Club’s request for an audit by an independent entity as an assumption made in advance by the applicant that the audit will confirm a number of irregularities in public finances, investments and the Municipality’s own tasks carried out as part of its statutory activities. Please remember that over the past three years I have been audited repeatedly by state authorities at the opposition’s request. It is difficult to undermine the independence of the Polish state authorities.
At one point, he took a swipe at the opposition:
At times I wonder whom you represent and whose interests you serve.
What do you think? We invite you to discuss it.