Kredyt Bank in conflict over $14.7 million in guarantees

In the Sejm yesterday, the deputy finance minister, Piotr Sawicki, announced that Kredyt Bank had not received $14.7 million of the $20 million in government guarantees that were granted in 1997, because the investment on which the loan was guaranteed, i.e., the construction of the Plasma Fractionation Laboratory in Mielec, had yet to materialize. The laboratory is required under EU regulations, which demand that candidate countries produce their own blood-derivative pharmaceuticals. In 1997, when the ministry signed an agreement with Kredyt Bank, the investment was assessed as attracting high risk. Sawicki added that Kredyt Bank had received two warnings, in 1998 and in 1999, after it transpired that the money had not been utilized properly. "The finance minister said that the bank was responsible for the effective utilization of the money," Sawicki stated yesterday. The bank, however, has refused to comment on the issue. (Parkiet, p. 1) K.Ż