Firms in Poland play cards close to chest when dealing with financial data

Most firms operating in Poland (domestic and foreign) offer their financial results very reluctantly. Some of them do not publish their reports even in Monitor Polski B, which is the official legal publication. Due to that the best source of information becomes newspaper rankings of companies. Some firms are willing to pay fines instead of allowing competitors find out any information about them. Agata Suskiewicz from the Treasury Ministry says, "There is no special institution, which could control the fulfillment of the duties connected with reporting." Even if firms decide to publish their reports they do it in such a way that the reader only gets historical data. That makes top 500 lists in newspapers so important, however in their case neither the source of information is known nor is it officially confirmed. "This data could not come from our firm as we have such a policy that no information is provided to any firm unless we have to," said Zbigniew Lazar, spokesman of General Motors Polska. Wieslaw Lagodzinski, president of the Central Statistical Office (GUS) denied that any information from the Office could be provided to the newspapers since GUS is forbidden even to share that information with the prosecutor's office or courts. (Rzeczpospolita, page B4) M.M.