Editor's note: Political sweep
The CEO of PGNiG, Marek Kossowski, couldn't bear the bad atmosphere around the company he managed and decided that instead of waiting for the government, he would make the first move.
The Polish media is buzzing with rumors about who is going to be next. The name game - of both those who will be made redundant and those who will find a new job immediately - has recently been a favorite topic during breaks in business negotiations in Poland.
It's always like that in Poland after a change in government. In the state-controlled giants a great storm breaks out that blows all CEOs and members of supervisory boards out of their comfy corporate chairs. The wind of change ruthlessly howls through the corridors of state-owned banks, insurance companies, power firms and copper concerns.
By some strange twist of fate CEOs and board members are suddenly no longer valued experts and become a heavy burden that has to be removed immediately, even those that achieved spectacular success and earned a lot of money for the state. In reality the bulk of state-owned companies, such as PKO BP, PZU, KGHM, PGNiG and Polskie Sieci Elektroenergetyczne, recorded excellent financial results last year.
I would really like to know what justification for their decisions the new government will provide. How are they going to explain to the public that, for example, Cezary Stypułkowski, the CEO of PZU, which is the biggest Polish insurer with a very high return on capital and a generally sound financial position, is a bad manager?
The audacity of the new government members is really astounding. When they are in opposition, deputies complain about the politicization of the economy. They claim that posts in key national companies are awarded on the basis of political and not managerial criteria, and that this must be done away with. But when they change their colors from oppositional to governmental, they also change their views and statements. Is the drug of power so strong that it totally disfigures reality?
Editor-in-chief
