Thousands of people filled out applications, had been collecting invoices for a week, and today suddenly “the lights were turned off” – this is how Andrzej Guła from the Polish Smog Alert comments on the decision to suspend the acceptance of new applications in the “Clean Air” program. Local government officials are also outraged by the decision of the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management. They talk about a “big mistake”, an “incomprehensible decision” of the fund and calls from concerned residents.
The National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management (NFOŚiGW) announced on Thursday, November 28, that the modernization of the “Clean Air” program is starting. Acceptance of new applications has been suspended.. Six years after the program was created. It was announced that under the program the fund will now focus on helping flood victims and processing all applications already submitted.
This decision was met with outrage by anti-smog activists and local government officials, who believe that it is a big mistake on the fund's part.
Thousands of people filled out applications. “Their lights were turned off”
– This is bad news not only for air protection, but also for household owners who face high energy prices they wanted to insulate the house, replace the old heat source and thus reduce their bills. The test of the government's credibility is being failed – commented Andrzej Guła from the Polish Smog Alert.
Read also: The Clean Air program is to undergo an overhaul. Acceptance of applications has been suspended
Guła recalled that one of the points of the Coalition's agenda on October 15 was to accelerate the process of replacing heat sources and thermal modernization as part of the “Clean Air” program. As announced, this program will now be reformed, but previously the government did not announce the suspension of the recruitment of applications.
The president of the fund, Dorota Zawadzka-Stępniak, explained that the scale of abuses and irregularities is so large that it is not possible to run the program and carry out a deep reform in parallel, hence the decision. Vice-President of the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management, Robert Gajda, said, among others: about situations in which companies “received an advance on their own account, disappeared from the market, and the entire responsibility fell on the unaware beneficiary.”
– The irregularities have been known for a long time, but they are not standard in the program. This is a false and harmful narrative. Every week, six thousand households submit applications under the Clean Air program. Thousands of people filled out applications, had been collecting invoices for a week, and today the lights were suddenly turned off, disabling the online application system. This approach is unfair and undermines trust in state institutions, commented Guła.
Strong protest by local governments
Representatives of local governments, which in the country's largest anti-smog program act as an intermediary between the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management and residents who apply for subsidies, also criticize.
– I consider suspending this tool to be a mistake. Everything had to be done to make this process less bureaucratic, to make it easier to invest these funds in your real estate. It's a pity that the easiest path was chosen. If there was any embezzlement, state institutions are there to investigate it – Piotr Kuczera, the mayor of Rybnik (Silesian Voivodeship), chairman of the Silesian Association of Municipalities and Districts, told tvn24.pl. So far, 14,000 furnaces have been replaced in Rybnik as part of the “Clean Air” program.
Two days before the decision of the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management, the Silesian Association of Municipalities and Districts sent a letter to the Prime Minister Donald Tusk “strong protest against plans to suspend the recruitment of applications.”
“One year after taking power, we would expect reforms to be implemented that would accelerate the replacement of heat sources and thermal modernization of houses, radically improve the service provided to beneficiaries, and not stop this important program and announce changes in the future,” we read in the union's letter.
“The worst signal that could go”
The suspension of recruitment will most affect local governments where air pollution is the highest – such as Rybnik, but also Pszczyna and Żywiec, as well as towns in Podhale. – Losing the subsidy will be an easy excuse to say: I don't have money, I can't afford it. And this is the worst signal that can send to public opinion – said the mayor of Rybnik.
– The fund primarily supported smaller, poorer communes, which were able to implement a program of replacing “smokestacks” and thermal modernization of buildings. We have our own furnace replacement program, on which we spent almost PLN 90 million, but we can afford it. And smaller municipalities relied primarily on funds from the “Clean Air” program – the mayor of Katowice, Marcin Krupa, told us, calling the decision to suspend recruitment “a very big mistake.”
– What the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management did is incomprehensible. Many people planned to take advantage of the program, and today they learned that this option is no longer available, added President Krupa.
Calls from residents
The mayor of the Poronin commune (Lesser Poland Voivodeship), Anita Żegleń, does not hide that the local government has been put “in a very uncomfortable situation.”
– Previously, we had signals that payments were delayed, and now we have received information that recruitment has been suspended. We are very saddened and baffled by this decision. Our eco-advisor received a lot of applications from residents. Today we had a lot of calls, a lot of anxiety, said Żegleń.
Arrears in payments from the Clean Air program currently concern 160,000 applications throughout Poland. The authorities of the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management assured that funds are secured for these households.
“Show of incompetence”
According to the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management, the break in accepting new applications will last until spring. – I don't believe it. This is a very complex system, and so far we have not heard anything specific. This reform is in its infancy. This is a show of incompetence on the part of the fund – said Andrzej Guła from the Polish Smog Alert.
According to a PAS expert, 80-100 thousand households could potentially benefit from the program by spring.
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