NIK criticizes the Polish Space Agency

Poland's Supreme Audit Office (NIK) has negatively assessed the Polish Space Agency. “Expenses exceeded the allotted plan, airplane tickets were purchased without proper procedures, and the work of external experts ordered by the Agency was not properly assessed and verified,” NIK head Krzysztof Kwiatkowski said, adding that he will present the details of NIK audit to the parliament. The Agency defends itself saying that the report concerns last year and does not represent the current state. “We have adopted recommendations from the NIK's audit, which we received at the end of April 2017, and we are very advanced in their implementation,” agency spokeswoman Urszula Szwed-Strych said. In October, last year, the Agency President Marek Banaszkiewicz was dismissed after his report on agency activities was not approved by the government. The Polish Space Agency (POLSA) was created in 2014. Its tasks include coordinating the activities of the Polish space industry (previously scattered among various institutions and departments), preparing and implementing research programs related to space exploration, and removing development barriers for space research.