Piotr Roman during the March session of the Bolesławiec City Council said that, when analysing data on the next allocation of funds from the Government Local Investment Fund, he wondered whether someone really disliked the name “Bolesławiec”, because of all the municipalities in Bolesławiec County, only two had not received money—and both were called Bolesławiec. He asked whether he should join PiS for the municipality to receive money from the government and wondered whether the collapse in government funding could be connected with the election of the Bolesławiec PiS candidate for parliament. Interview on Monday, 17 May at 12:30.
Mayor of Bolesławiec Piotr Roman:
I do not remember times when government funds were divided in this way.
We were satisfied with the allocation of the first tranche; with the second, we concluded that it was an accident at work.
Question: What am I supposed to join PiS with? It was a rhetorical question, one intended to prompt discussion.
It is impossible to achieve a civilisational leap without funding for local governments.
Funding was also not granted to, among others, Sopot, Inowrocław and Zgorzelec.
The underfunding of a local government is a kind of punishment for residents.
Bolesławiec should receive money from the COVID funding programme.
The practice of favouring municipalities with the best election results is now being confirmed.
I believe in MP Szymon Pogoda’s good intentions.
MP Kubów played a huge role in distributing funds to Lower Silesian municipalities.
There is no Civic Platform in the county, after it formed a coalition with PiS.
MP Szymon Pogoda is a young man working to build his position; let us give him a chance.
The authorities of Poznań calculated that because of the New Deal they would lose PLN 400 million from the budget.
Bolesławiec will lose PLN 20 million.
Many ideas in the New Deal come from Hungarian solutions.
There is no local government left in Hungary.
Many entrepreneurs running sole proprietorships will be forced to raise the prices of their services.
Below is a poll. You can vote on whether Piotr Roman should join PiS so that Bolesławiec receives money from the government fund. Please treat the poll humorously, as a test of voters’ political sense of humour.
Czy Piotr Roman powinien się zapisać do PiS?
Analysis of the allocation of funds from the third tranche of the Government Local Investment Fund
An analysis of the distribution of the government fund’s money conducted by the Stefan Batory Foundation shows that almost all municipalities governed by PiS officials received funding, with half of them receiving it twice. Municipalities governed by officials from opposition parties were overlooked in both tranches in a clear majority of cases, and the drastic variation in funding depending on the official’s political affiliation did not result from activity in submitting applications.
The method of distributing funds from the third tranche of the Government Local Investment Fund (RFIL) repeats the pattern used for the second tranche. In larger municipalities, the difference between those whose mayor represents the governing party and those governed by opposition representatives has not changed. On average, a municipality whose leader is from PiS still receives grants more than ten times larger. Public criticism, including from local-government organisations, has not changed the rules for distributing the funds. These rules are a conscious and deliberate government policy, believe Prof. Jarosław Flis and Prof. Paweł Swianiewicz, the authors of the analysis prepared for the forumIdei of the Batory Foundation.
The authors reached the following conclusions:
- Two tranches distributed separately make it possible to check what proportion of municipalities in each group received no grant under either tranche and what proportion received funding under both. A clear tilt can be seen here. Almost all municipalities governed by PiS officials received funding, with half receiving it twice.
- Municipalities with officials from opposition parties were overlooked in both tranches in a clear majority of cases. This pattern is almost identical for smaller and larger municipalities. The only noticeable difference is that among larger municipalities, no municipality with a PiS mayor was overlooked, while 60% received funding from both tranches. More than half of the remaining municipalities of this type were overlooked.
- Municipalities governed by officials associated with PiS applied on average for larger sums than municipalities whose officials were politically neutral or associated with other political options.
- The drastic variation in funding depending on the official’s political affiliation does not result from activity in submitting applications. Quite the opposite. One may wonder why local governments with opposition officials bother submitting applications at all if their chances of success are so marginal—several times lower than those of neighbouring municipalities differing only in the party affiliation of their official.