"From next year, companies will no longer have the existing obligation to continue financing the PFN," State Assets Minister Wojciech Balczun said.
"If the foundation wants to continue operating, it will have to find other sources of funding," he added.
The decision will end a financing system established when the Polish National Foundation (PFN) was created in 2016 by 17 large companies with state holdings, including Orlen, PZU, PKO BP, KGHM, PGE and state railway company PKP.
The foundation was intended to promote Poland and the Polish economy at home and abroad, as well as Polish businesses and investments by state-controlled companies. Its founders initially committed PLN 97.5 million, about USD 27 million, to the foundation’s start-up fund. They were then required to make annual payments for 10 years from 2017.
Poland’s Supreme Audit Office (NIK) calculated that the system was due to provide PFN with more than PLN 633 million through 2026. The audit office also found that the companies financing the organization had little practical influence over how it operated.
The end of automatic funding comes as prosecutors examine the foundation’s spending under previous management.
In July, prosecutors charged former PFN president Cezary J. and former board member Maciej Ś. over the PLN 8.43 million “Fair Courts” media campaign launched in 2017 to promote changes to Poland’s judiciary.
Prosecutors allege the campaign fell outside the foundation’s statutory purposes and amounted to prohibited political marketing services for the then-governing Law and Justice (PiS) party and its junior coalition partner, United Poland. Both men denied the charges.
The investigation expanded on September 23, when the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA) detained Anna P. and Piotr M., former board members of public relations company Solvere, which carried out the campaign.
Prosecutors charged them with participating in actions that allegedly caused the foundation a loss of at least PLN 8.43 million and provided political marketing services of the same value. Both denied the charges and gave statements to investigators.
A separate investigation opened in 2025 covers other PFN spending between 2017 and 2024, including donation agreements, the Portal Polska project, oversight of expenditure and employment and noncompete agreements. Prosecutors said the potential losses being examined in that investigation exceeded PLN 23 million and USD 2.3 million.
(rt)
Source: PAP