Open forum
In this space two weeks ago we questioned whether Wieslaw Kaczmarek, the likely next treasury minister in a Democratic Left Alliance (SLD)-led government, had any concrete solutions for solving this country's cash-flow problems. One might have argued that because of his party's hefty lead in the polls, Kaczmarek wasn't required to say anything at all, and that perhaps the best policy would be to continue to speak broadly about his party's plans for mending the economy and avoid revealing anything of real substance certainly anything he or the SLD could regret later.
He should have left well enough alone. Why Kaczmarek didn't have the foresight last week to see the inescapable fallout from his "creative" suggestion to generate more money for the budget by freezing pension fund transfers and going back to the outmoded pay-as-you-go system, is a mystery. Even Marek Wagner, who represents the SLD on Parliament's public finance committee, quickly distanced himself from the idea, saying that abolishing the two-year-old system of private pension fund transfers would have dire consequences. Such a move would certainly draw fire from the 20 pension fund companies that set up shop here and now manage more than zl. 13 billion ($3 billion) in retirement assets, not to mention the pension fund contributors themselves. It would also certainly lead to nastier financial burdens for future budgets.
Granted, implementing the 1999 pension reform was fraught with ineptitude, but is the wholesale chucking of the scheme, and unnerving foreign investors and wage earners in the process the kind of long-term, pro-growth thinking this country needs?
In an interview two weeks ago, Kaczmarek told the Business Journal there were dozens of finance projects that could generate cash for the budget, such as investment schemes in transport networks, IT penetration, gas and oil pipelines, warehouse centers and power networks. But how many investors will be willing to plow money into these programs if the government is labeled too schizophrenic to do business with that a deal with the government may be undone four years down the road?
The fact that Kaczmarek and the SLD are worried about the cash-poor state of public finances they will inherit after their probable victory in the Sept. 23 parliamentary elections is understandable. In a desperate measure a week ago, the Finance Ministry even launched a Web page (http://www.mofnet.gov.pl/forum/index.shtml) to solicit public suggestions on how to solve its budget problems (588 proposals were posted as of last Thursday). With less than a month to go before elections, perhaps Kaczmarek should consider using this forum to air his ideas first, rather than unveil them publicly before an electorate that may begin to have second thoughts.
