NIK criticizes the Spit excavation. “The investment has lost its economic justification”
The minister responsible for the excavation of the Vistula Spit knew that the value of the investment had increased by over 100%. will exceed the assumed budget. The huge costs meant that the investment lost its economic justification. This is one of the allegations of the Supreme Audit Office auditors.
The Supreme Audit Office analyzed one of the largest projects of the outgoing political team, which is the excavation of the Vistula Spit. The auditors analyzed documents kept by the Ministry of Infrastructure, the Maritime Office in Gdynia and the Elbląg Sea Port Authority. They noticed many irregularities and found numerous examples of mismanagement.
Business Insider Polska reached the key conclusions from this audit.
Dig the Vistula Spit. Budget unsustainable
Officials direct their main accusations against the Ministry of Infrastructure, specifically the minister responsible for maritime affairs and the Gdynia Maritime Office. NIK informs that already at the stage of adoption of the program by the government, in which Beata Szydło was the Prime Minister at that time, the necessary tasks were not included in the investment planning, which made it impossible to achieve the main objective of “ensuring the security of the region and enabling social and social growth”. economic”.
Already at the initial stage it became clear that it was impossible to maintain the investment schedule. At the beginning, the value of the program was set at PLN 880 million, and ultimately it consumed almost PLN 2 billion of public money. According to NIK, the budget was exceeded by 125%. caused that the investment lost its economic justification.
You cannot defend officials with the arguments that the value of the investment increased over time and could not be estimated at the beginning, because even before the first shovel was broken, the director of the Maritime Office signed a contract for the first of four phases of construction works, which showed that the expenses would be higher than the government planned.
Supreme Audit Office. Who is this trench for?
The auditors also pointed out that without appropriate infrastructure investments in the port of Elbląg, sea vessels with a draft of up to 4.5 m, a length of up to 100 m (180 m in the case of barges) and a width of up to 20 m will not be able to call there – with a view to a ditch was created about them. For now, the deepening of the port is not being carried out because the local government of Elbląg and the authorities of the company managing the port, as well as the government and the Maritime Office in Gdynia are arguing over who should pay for this part of the work.
“BI” asked the Ministry of Infrastructure for a comment. In response, it assured that the construction of the waterway connecting the Vistula Lagoon with the Bay of Gdańsk is a strategic investment whose purpose, in addition to building a shipping canal independent of Russia’s decisions, is, among others, ensuring the security and defense of the state.
“The assessment of the profitability of an investment is not limited only to the economic dimension and should not be reduced only to the amount of financial outlays incurred for the implementation of a given project. The overriding role of the public interest must also be taken into account,” wrote spokesman Szymon Huptyś.
“The increase in the value of the program results from the need to implement investment elements and use technologies that were not planned for implementation at the stage of the concept prepared in 2016,” argues the MI spokesman.
