NEWS

25/05/2020

09:31

Government Impatient with Municipalities' Slow Pace in Rolling Out Business Shield; Maląg Offers IT Services from 500+ and E-Prescription Programs to Warsaw

Łukasz Mężyk

Marlena Maląg will today propose to Warsaw authorities the assistance of government IT specialists to speed up the distribution of aid to nearly 400,000 Warsaw entrepreneurs eligible for the shield – 300POLITYKA has learned. Maląg intends to highlight large-scale IT projects that have been successful under this administration, such as 500+ or E-Prescription – we hear from a minister involved in the introduction of the business shield. Public employment services in Poland are structured around provincial and district labor offices appointed by respective provincial and district self-government authorities. On the government side, there is visible irritation regarding the pace of application processing at the municipal level. "The formal and organizational separation between self-government bodies and government bodies results in a decentralized model of labor offices. Politics also plays a role here – where the starosta or the mayor of a city with county rights comes from a political camp opposing the government, they may delay the operations of some offices – for example, as in the case of shield aid," a minister tells us. "I took the liberty of sending an appeal to the Mayor of Warsaw to review the implementation of micro-loans disbursed as part of the anti-crisis shield and to improve operations," the Minister of Labor stated on Friday. In her letter to the capital's mayor on Friday, Maląg wrote: "We observe with concern the situation in Warsaw, which constitutes a shameful exception on the map of Poland in terms of processing loan applications for micro-entrepreneurs to cover current operating costs. According to our information, the Labor Office of the Capital City of Warsaw has processed less than 10 percent of all applications so far. Meanwhile, the national average is 60 percent, and many labor offices have nearly 100 percent application processing rates."

Łukasz Mężyk