Good housekeeping

Zyta Gilowska, Poland's Minister of Finance, has announced that the solid state of Poland's economy will enable her to kick off a radical reform of public finances. The main goals of the planned reforms are a lowering of public debt and an increase of efforts to modernize as delineated by the EU's 'Finance Perspectives 2007-2013' program.

The Finance Minister's plan aims to consolidate the public-finance sector by closing or merging a number of government agencies. One result of this would be to reduce employers' wage contributions to disability benefits from the beginning of 2008 to 10 percent (from a current 13 percent) and to seven percent at the start of 2009.

According to Gilowska, the reforms should take place in all institutions which are financed by public money. The most urgent changes, she declared, are necessary in institutions whose style of "housekeeping" dates back to the 1950s.

"The system needs to be ready for changes in the first half of 2007," the Minister said. She added that the agencies that she intends to close would use approximately zł.8.3 billion from Poland's current budget.

Furthermore, Gilowska plans to consolidate the national tax and customs offices, remolding them into a single, better-organized network of territorial branches.

This is the second time Gilowska has set forth an ambitious reform plan. A year ago she announced a similar scheme but was unable to see it implemented before she was sacked by former Prime Minister Marcinkiewicz over an accusation of having cooperated with the communist secret services. Having weathered the subsequent, high-profile vetting, she has returned to her previous post with undiminished aspirations. This time the odds for success could be just as long.