Controversial KPO HoReCa Expenditures. Former PARP President Hits Back

Let's not mix PARP with politics, the management of the Ministry of Funds is responsible for the program addressed to the HoReCa industry from the KPO, as well as other programs financed from EU funds, which it monitors on an ongoing basis - wrote Katarzyna Duber-Stachurska, former head of PARP, on Sunday.

The former president of the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development in a post on LinkedIn referred to the ongoing discussion about spending funds from the National Recovery Plan in a program for the SME sector in the HoReCa (hotel and restaurant industry).

"PARP is an executive agency; it does not make decisions about programs or establish criteria for granting funding. All procedures, regulations, and agreements are approved by the Ministry of Development Funds and Regional Policy. The Agency has no independence in this regard. This was the case with KPO HoReCa," noted Katarzyna Duber-Stachurska.

The former head of the Agency emphasized that the Ministry of Funds and Regional Policy "even approved the method of describing the invoice with expenses and supervised the implementation of the program on a daily basis."

"The Ministry was aware of the boats – it answered operators' questions about whether boats with combustion engines were permitted. The Minister (Pełczyńska-Nałęcz - PAP) assured entrepreneurs that she personally intervened to loosen the original rules so that funds could flow more efficiently and quickly," Duber-Stachurska added in the post.

According to the former head of the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development (PARP), "the Minister has commissioned the same people who have been involved in the program for a year and a half to audit the spending of funds, meaning they have been instructed to audit themselves." "And they will do a good job – the results of the most recent Supreme Audit Office (NIK) audits from 2024 and 2025 did not reveal any irregularities at PARP; the programs were and are being implemented in accordance with applicable regulations and documentation approved by the Ministry of Finance and Development," she added.

"Let's not mix PARP with politics - it is the management of MFiPR that is responsible for KPO HoReCa and all other programs financed from European funds, which it monitors on an ongoing basis," stressed Duber-Stachurska.

On Thursday evening, users of the X platform began posting examples of companies in the HoReCa sector that received KPO subsidies for, among other things, yachts, saunas, coffee machines, solariums, furniture replacement, and the purchase of a virtual shooting range. The media also began covering the matter on Friday. The Ministry of Funds announced audits, and the prosecutor's office launched an investigation. Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated that he would not accept any waste of KPO funds and expected swift decisions, as well as the revocation of funds in the event of abuse. He declared that consequences would be imposed regardless of position or party affiliation.

During a press conference on Friday, Jan Szyszko, deputy head of the Ministry of Funds, said that information about the irregularities reached the Ministry of Funds and Development's management "several weeks ago." The MFiPR representative added that, as a result, the previous president of the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development, Katarzyna Duber-Stachurska, was dismissed from her position at the end of July.

The Ministry of Funds and Development declared a review of the KPO funds allocated to entrepreneurs in the restaurant and hotel industry. It assured that the preliminary results of the audit, to be conducted by the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development (PARP), will be "probably at the end of September, and certainly in the third quarter of this year." (...) We will be fully determined to verify whether every złoty of public money is being used as it should be," it emphasized. The Ministry of Funds and Development added that Poland will submit an indicator based on verified, correct projects to the European Commission for review in December.

On Sunday, the website money.pl published a response from the European Public Prosecutor's Office, indicating that it is responsible for "investigating possible fraud involving EU funds." The European Public Prosecutor's Office added that it is strongly interested in the case and is in close contact with national authorities.

The purpose of the HoReCa funding under the KPO is to support micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises in the hotel, catering, tourism, and culture sectors. These sectors have been hit hardest by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The HoReCa recruitment rules were established in 2023. Applications for funding could be submitted in the May-June and July-October 2024 periods. In the second round of applications, simplifications were introduced for applicants for additional funds, including lowering the minimum year-on-year turnover decline in 2020-2021 to 20%. (In the first recruitment, it was 30%).

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