Post by Bonobo on Feb 3, 2011 8:25:47 GMT 1
At last a new law was introduced. Negligent relentless clerks will probably be more careful now.
Civil servants to pay for mistakes
01.02.2011 15:41
President Bronislaw Komorowski has signed a bill which introduces punishment for financially incompetent civil servants.
Civil servants who take a decision or make a mistake which results in their employer having to pay financial damages, will receive a fine equal to twelve months salary.
While many will celebrate a drive to create more efficient civil servants, others warn that the opposite could occur, paralyzing the whole state machinery.
“Because of a fear of severe punishment, clerks will refrain from taking difficult or daring decisions,” claims Jaroslaw Kapsa from the Czestochowa city hall.
Kapsa suggests that Poland should adopt British or German solutions. In Britain, political parties take responsibility for civil servants’ mistakes while in Germany disciplinary measures are taken in case of major incompetence.
The law will come into force in March.
Read an old article:
Źródło: Warsaw Business Journal
Warsaw Business Journal
Kluska wants to settle in court
The ex-chief executive of Optimus is seeking zł.1.4 million in compensation for his "wrongful arrest" two years ago when he was accused of a major tax scam.
A well-known entrepreneur and charity worker, he was eventually cleared of the alleged fraud. But as the legal proceedings rumbled on he was required to place a huge bail bond in a police deposit for 16 months.
"Because I was forced to pay the zł.8 million bail bond, my overall financial situation was severely effected," Roman Kluska told the WBJ. "In order to obtain such a large sum of money I had to cancel my fixed money deposit, which required me to pay the bank interest that was already accrued. The amount of that interest was enormous. What I am asking the court for is a very insignificant number in comparison to what I have lost."
Kluska was accused, alongside senior managers of the computer retailer, of tax evasion by organizing a fictional computer export. Between 1998 and 1999 the business had been exporting computers, which were then imported back by various schools through contracts issued by the Ministry of Education.
Tax rules at the time made importation of these computers tax-free while their sale was taxed at 22 percent domestically. According to the Public Prosecutor's Office, the National Treasury lost zł.10 million due to this export mechanism.
Kluska says the legal fiasco led to significant losses. "I am not looking for any revenge-not even justice. I just want it to serve as a warning to other businessmen because doing business in Poland is very risky. The law is corrupted and it does not protect or serve its citizens," he says.
Lawyers say it is difficult to speculate on the outcome of the action. A partner at White & Case, Lech Giliciński, believes that since the Administrative Supreme Court decided that no crime was committed and the investigation caused Kluska financial loss, there are legal grounds for the case.
If Kluska wins the action he lodged last week at the District Court in Kraków he says he will donate the compensation to a charitable cause. "The money I was keeping in my fixed deposit was supposed to build a nursing home in the Nowy Sącz area. If I get the settlement it will help to start the project; however, I must say that the sum that I am asking for will not even cover the necessities," says Kluska.
Kluska is now focusing his entrepreneurial skills on a Christian internet book store called PRODOX and trying to come up with ways to make sheep farming cheaper for Polish farmers. However, he says he is not planning to become active in the Polish business world until the law is reformed. Kluska says he has lost so much already that he cannot afford to put himself at risk again.
Agnieszka Łukaszczyk
However, the new law may also have catastrophic effects, as some forum users point out:
Indecisive
01/02/2011 16:13:45
What an idiotic decision ! Having worked on public construction projects my experience is that it is already near on impossible to get a decision from a civil servant. This new legislation will prevent any decisions from being made.
Pat
01/02/2011 16:20:13
What a disaster...
Already civil servants will not do things in any other way than the slow, inefficient way that they have always done it, even if a perfectly legal short-cut that would cut there work in half exists. This new law (the way it is presented in the above short-article) will cement this behaviour. For instance, can you see a customs official taking a decision to tax and charge duty on a package from the States on the basis of an intelligent guess of what is inside the package (by reading the customs declaration)? NO, they will fill out a form in triplicate and send a copy to the addressee asking them to reply in Polish by letter of exactly what is inside the package. This law will just extend the duration of the joke that
bb
01/02/2011 16:37:46
wow. dumb. how about rewarding clerks for processing more people faster with the fewest reported errors or complaints ... that's what this country needs more than this idiotic law.
Z
01/02/2011 17:12:25
I guess I wasn't thinking of the negative side of this law. It's just we constantly have to pay for the mistakes of our civil servants and politicians so it sounded good when I first read it.
Felix D.
01/02/2011 18:39:52
"paralyzing the whole state machinery" perhaps a bit too dramatic but it will take a slow bureaucracy and make it it even slower. Not a good idea.
west
01/02/2011 20:30:18
hear, hear BB ! brilliant idea Uśmiech
Poz
01/02/2011 20:56:34
bb has NAILED it - this is the worst thing Poland could do and the exact opposite of what they need. I am only here as a student and can't wait to leave for no reason other than the insane bureaucracy and miserable bureaucrats that run it (or don't)
D
01/02/2011 21:39:54
12 Months pay? This is crazy! - What person in their right mind would work in the public sector under these conditions?
Tommy
02/02/2011 11:02:07
bureaucracy and red tape needs to be slashed as much as possible to make Poland grow and prosper. Civil servants need to have a clearer system to work with and enforce but also need to be held to account when they screw things up.
this seems a half-arsed solution to the current problem.
Civil servants to pay for mistakes
01.02.2011 15:41
President Bronislaw Komorowski has signed a bill which introduces punishment for financially incompetent civil servants.
Civil servants who take a decision or make a mistake which results in their employer having to pay financial damages, will receive a fine equal to twelve months salary.
While many will celebrate a drive to create more efficient civil servants, others warn that the opposite could occur, paralyzing the whole state machinery.
“Because of a fear of severe punishment, clerks will refrain from taking difficult or daring decisions,” claims Jaroslaw Kapsa from the Czestochowa city hall.
Kapsa suggests that Poland should adopt British or German solutions. In Britain, political parties take responsibility for civil servants’ mistakes while in Germany disciplinary measures are taken in case of major incompetence.
The law will come into force in March.
Read an old article:
Źródło: Warsaw Business Journal
Warsaw Business Journal
Kluska wants to settle in court
The ex-chief executive of Optimus is seeking zł.1.4 million in compensation for his "wrongful arrest" two years ago when he was accused of a major tax scam.
A well-known entrepreneur and charity worker, he was eventually cleared of the alleged fraud. But as the legal proceedings rumbled on he was required to place a huge bail bond in a police deposit for 16 months.
"Because I was forced to pay the zł.8 million bail bond, my overall financial situation was severely effected," Roman Kluska told the WBJ. "In order to obtain such a large sum of money I had to cancel my fixed money deposit, which required me to pay the bank interest that was already accrued. The amount of that interest was enormous. What I am asking the court for is a very insignificant number in comparison to what I have lost."
Kluska was accused, alongside senior managers of the computer retailer, of tax evasion by organizing a fictional computer export. Between 1998 and 1999 the business had been exporting computers, which were then imported back by various schools through contracts issued by the Ministry of Education.
Tax rules at the time made importation of these computers tax-free while their sale was taxed at 22 percent domestically. According to the Public Prosecutor's Office, the National Treasury lost zł.10 million due to this export mechanism.
Kluska says the legal fiasco led to significant losses. "I am not looking for any revenge-not even justice. I just want it to serve as a warning to other businessmen because doing business in Poland is very risky. The law is corrupted and it does not protect or serve its citizens," he says.
Lawyers say it is difficult to speculate on the outcome of the action. A partner at White & Case, Lech Giliciński, believes that since the Administrative Supreme Court decided that no crime was committed and the investigation caused Kluska financial loss, there are legal grounds for the case.
If Kluska wins the action he lodged last week at the District Court in Kraków he says he will donate the compensation to a charitable cause. "The money I was keeping in my fixed deposit was supposed to build a nursing home in the Nowy Sącz area. If I get the settlement it will help to start the project; however, I must say that the sum that I am asking for will not even cover the necessities," says Kluska.
Kluska is now focusing his entrepreneurial skills on a Christian internet book store called PRODOX and trying to come up with ways to make sheep farming cheaper for Polish farmers. However, he says he is not planning to become active in the Polish business world until the law is reformed. Kluska says he has lost so much already that he cannot afford to put himself at risk again.
Agnieszka Łukaszczyk
However, the new law may also have catastrophic effects, as some forum users point out:
Indecisive
01/02/2011 16:13:45
What an idiotic decision ! Having worked on public construction projects my experience is that it is already near on impossible to get a decision from a civil servant. This new legislation will prevent any decisions from being made.
Pat
01/02/2011 16:20:13
What a disaster...
Already civil servants will not do things in any other way than the slow, inefficient way that they have always done it, even if a perfectly legal short-cut that would cut there work in half exists. This new law (the way it is presented in the above short-article) will cement this behaviour. For instance, can you see a customs official taking a decision to tax and charge duty on a package from the States on the basis of an intelligent guess of what is inside the package (by reading the customs declaration)? NO, they will fill out a form in triplicate and send a copy to the addressee asking them to reply in Polish by letter of exactly what is inside the package. This law will just extend the duration of the joke that
bb
01/02/2011 16:37:46
wow. dumb. how about rewarding clerks for processing more people faster with the fewest reported errors or complaints ... that's what this country needs more than this idiotic law.
Z
01/02/2011 17:12:25
I guess I wasn't thinking of the negative side of this law. It's just we constantly have to pay for the mistakes of our civil servants and politicians so it sounded good when I first read it.
Felix D.
01/02/2011 18:39:52
"paralyzing the whole state machinery" perhaps a bit too dramatic but it will take a slow bureaucracy and make it it even slower. Not a good idea.
west
01/02/2011 20:30:18
hear, hear BB ! brilliant idea Uśmiech
Poz
01/02/2011 20:56:34
bb has NAILED it - this is the worst thing Poland could do and the exact opposite of what they need. I am only here as a student and can't wait to leave for no reason other than the insane bureaucracy and miserable bureaucrats that run it (or don't)
D
01/02/2011 21:39:54
12 Months pay? This is crazy! - What person in their right mind would work in the public sector under these conditions?
Tommy
02/02/2011 11:02:07
bureaucracy and red tape needs to be slashed as much as possible to make Poland grow and prosper. Civil servants need to have a clearer system to work with and enforce but also need to be held to account when they screw things up.
this seems a half-arsed solution to the current problem.