The auditors took a closer look at eight key projects co-financed from the European Union budget, the total value of which was PLN 8,490 million.
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The conclusions are shocking: instead of a modern railway network, passengers received years of paralysis, and taxpayers had to dig deep into their pockets.
NIK points to irregularities
“The Supreme Audit Office examined the implementation of eight railway investments by PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe, co-financed by EU funds. The audit revealed unreliable activities, resulting in delays of up to five years and an increase in costs by nearly PLN 500 million.” – informs the Supreme Audit Office on website X.
The company's main sin turned out to be an extremely unprofessional approach to planning. The Supreme Audit Office's analysis shows that functional and utility programs for most projects were created haphazardly, based on outdated data.
As a result, when workers entered the construction site, the designs had to be immediately revised, generating an avalanche of claims from contractors. Chaos also prevailed when obtaining administrative approvals – here the formalities could block the start of work for almost four years.
The most shocking picture, however, emerges from the supervision of the works themselves. The official statement from the Supreme Audit Office reads:
“The audit covering the years 2017-2024 revealed unreliable preparation of documentation, negligence at the planning stage, including errors in functional and utility programs, and ineffective monitoring of the investment progress. This resulted in significant delays – up to five years – and an increase in costs by nearly PLN 500 million, of which almost PLN 30 million was the fault of the Company.“.
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The auditors revealed that in one of the investments, PKP PLK tolerated for over two years a company that did not fulfill the contract and did not pay subcontractors. Worse still, the complete lack of supervision over the area created perfect conditions for criminals.
As the Chamber emphasizes, “failure to properly secure the construction site by an unreliable contractor led to the theft of infrastructure worth over PLN 12.5 million“There were as many as 31 thefts of network elements there.
Donated millions and blind monitoring
The report also reveals gross mismanagement in the enforcement of contractual provisions. PKP PLK, despite clear evidence of the contractors' guilt, it “gave” them contractual penalties in the amount of PLN 27.7 million and waived their calculation. Moreover, the company delayed recovering another PLN 17.8 million in other claims.
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The final bill for officials' mistakes is heavy. The cost of the surveyed lines increased by 5.8%. over budget. Almost PLN 398 million of this amount is a direct result of the fact that the investments were mercilessly delayed.
Why didn't anyone react in time? Inspectors point to a faulty internal monitoring system at PKP PLK. Risks appeared in the database only when the disaster was already a fact, which made any prevention impossible. Therefore, NIK made a categorical appeal to the authorities of the railway company to immediately implement corrective programs in the process of planning future investments.
