The audit, as declared by Jan Grabiec, the head of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, will scrutinize processes within the Ministry of Defense and the Prime Minister's Office.
This move comes in the wake of revelations that Poland received merely around EUR 2.1 million of the EUR 500 million allocated by the European Union to bolster arms manufacturing capacities, a sum aimed primarily at enhancing Ukraine's defensive capabilities and replenishing stockpiles.
"This is indeed a scandal. We will conduct an audit on this matter, both at the Ministry of Defense and at the level of the Prime Minister's Office," Grabiec affirmed on TVN24. He identified poor preparation of the applications and the complete absence of submissions for the main competition as primary reasons for the disappointing outcome.
Grabiec also placed the blame squarely on the previous administration, suggesting a lack of competence as a contributing factor.
"When we recall that the largest NATO producer of TNT in Europe is the Nitrochem plant, where the Law and Justice Party appointed an aquarist, a specialist in aquarium fish, as president of this company - later these presidents exchanged a dozen more times - well, we understand what was going on there," he explained.
In response to the oversight, Grabiec indicated that responsible parties would face repercussions. "I know that personnel changes are being made at the moment in companies, including armaments companies. In addition to the responsibility such as dismissing incompetent people, criminal responsibility also comes into play if there has been an omission," he stated.
The European Commission's initiative to allocate EUR 500 million to European armament companies, including Poland's Dezamet plant, is part of a broader effort to scale up production capacity to 2 million shells a year by the end of 2025.
(jh)
Source: PAP