Agricultural Agency accused of incompetence in Deloitte and Touche report

Direct agricultural subsidies worth zl. 600 million, which were to be received from the EU under the IACS system, are in jeopardy, according to a report compiled by Deloitte and Touche. The report blames the Agricultural Restructuring and Modernization Agency (ARiMR) for serious delays in the preparation of the IACS system. Many deadlines, agreed with the European Integration Committee in 2000, have been missed. According to the report, there is no chance of work belonging to the so-called "non-IT" portion being completed on schedule. Not only is the deadline for earmarking animals in danger, but so are many other tasks. The Agency will be unable to prepare the organizational structure or purchase and install computers and servers on time. There are also problems with speedy and efficient preparation of premises. The headquarters are still non-existent. The report identifies the ARiMR as being responsible for these delays as it accepted responsibility for the non-IT elements in March of this year. On the other hand, the report's authors did not find any misconduct on the part of Hewlett Packard (HP), responsible for the IT part of the system. "The division of work into IT and non IT elements of the IACS system changed the ARiMR's status from the receiver that accepts the finished product into the body responsible for execution of the work. Hence, HP's responsibilities were reduced. The Agency is still not fully aware of that," comments Civic Platform (PO) deputy Tomasz Szczypinski. (Prawo i Gospodarka, pp. 1, 4) M.T.