Flood victims are waiting for benefits for reconstruction and renovation. “The process must accelerate dramatically”

They are ongoing procedures related to submitting applications and paying benefits for flood victims. This does not happen without problems. Voivodes point to the stagnation on the part of municipalities, while local governments explain the insufficient number of officials.

– What is most important is urgent payment of funds to the injured. This is handled by the Ministry of Interior and Administration and voivodes directly. (…) Here, I am convinced that this process must accelerate rapidly – Marcin Kierwiński, the government's plenipotentiary for post-flood reconstruction, told us on Saturday.

As he said, so far the first tranche of benefits from the so-called emergency aid. These are benefits amounting to PLN 2,000 and PLN 8,000. – Now we are waiting for the acceleration of the payment of renovation benefits of PLN 100,000 and PLN 200,000. However, the key area that I deal with is building financing for the actual reconstruction process, i.e. restoring the infrastructure that was damaged – explained Kierwiński.

Kierwiński pointed out that several ministries are involved in helping flood victims. – Minister (of education – editor) Barbara Nowacka launched a competition for the renovation of schools that suffered from flooding. There is over PLN 400 million for this purpose. Minister (of sport – ed.) Sławomir Nitras launched a similar program for the reconstruction of sports infrastructure. Funds for current investments are also paid on an ongoing basis. This is support from the reserve of the Ministry of Interior and Administration – he said in an interview with a TVN24 journalist.

The government's representative for reconstruction also said that Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego has prepared a project for local governments regarding the construction of new municipal apartments that can be used by people affected by the flood.

– Together with local government officials, we are also preparing an infrastructure reconstruction program. Money from the reserve of the Ministry of Interior and Administration (PLN 100 million – editor) was also directed to Polish Waters, because it is necessary to clean the watercourses that have flooded. This must be done before winter – added Marcin Kierwiński.

On Friday, RMF FM reported that Minister of Interior and Administration Tomasz Siemoniak and Marcin Kierwiński summoned the voivodes of Lower Silesia and Opole to a meeting. The aim was to discuss the problems of local government officials in connection with the formalities that municipalities must fulfill in order for residents to receive benefits for the reconstruction and renovation of houses and farm buildings.

On Sunday, the Lower Silesian Voivode issued a statement in which he announced that he and the mayor of Kłodzko had taken urgent action to speed up the payment of benefits.

“Funds for the first 107 families in the amount of PLN 10,254,000 will be paid already in the first days of the week. The payment process will significantly speed up. The mayor also asked for support from additional officials from outside the commune to speed up the activities of the Social Welfare Center. Following the example of support from construction engineers, in municipal commissions, so such support will be provided this week,” the statement said.

Voivode Maciej Awiżeń confirmed that so far 1,050 families from Kłodzko have received emergency aid, i.e. benefits of PLN 2,000 and PLN 8,000. Benefits of PLN 1,000 were also paid to 550 families.

The voivodeship office also announced that on Sunday there will be a meeting of the voivode with all commune heads and mayors of the Kłodzko district. “The aim of our joint activities must be to accelerate the payment of benefits and provide the fullest possible assistance to those affected by the flood,” we read in the statement.

In conversations with journalists, local government officials have been pointing out for several days that Completing all procedures related to submitting applications for aid for flood victims takes a lot of time and requires the involvement of many officials – primarily those from Social Welfare Centers, and these are units that also have other assistance tasks to perform.

What is the “path” that officials and local government officials must follow so that Kowalski can apply for aid? Each resident affected by the flood must have a commission to assess the losses. It consists of employees of the Social Welfare Center and engineers. In Lądek-Zdrój, the stage of forming the commission turned out to be difficult.

– We are a small commune, we do not have qualified specialists who could estimate the damage, so we had to ask for help. And that's where the initial shortness of breath comes from. But we reported the need and we received the needed help – explained the mayor of Lądek-Zdrój, Tomasz Nowicki.

The commissions create damage assessment reports, from which the benefit amount must then be calculated. Then it remains to enter the application into the system. – We had to ask authorized social workers for help, so people came to us from Kłodzko, Wałbrzych and Wrocław. We have been in this whirlwind of working several hours a day for two months now. People in offices and social welfare centers are simply tired and are starting to crumble – Nowicki pointed out.

Only when the applications are in the system, voivodeship offices evaluate them and apply for the payment of funds from the ministry.

The mayor of Lądek-Zdrój mentioned that despite everything, a certain “administrative rhythm must be maintained.” – We are dealing with public funds. No employee of the commission or office will sign off on a decision that is not certain, because we will also be subject to control over the spending of these funds – he adds.