Sowing the seeds of success

Although the majority of the structural funds are available to the public sector, with the  Increased Competitiveness Fund providing financial sources for the private sector to enable Polish enterprises to narrow the gap separating them from the more competitive companies from the west.

"Polish companies understand the increased need of being competitive and that doesn't mean just cutting costs, but investing in new technologies and complying with environmental regulations," said the managing partner of PriceWaterhouseCoopers's Advisory Department, Olga Grygier. She added that both the private and the public sector have shown more interest in fund-related consulting. 

"The interest in getting funds from the EU has certainly grown since the entrance to the Union," Magdalena Majchrzak from Acquis Consulting said.

She recalls that people had to be persuaded and convinced to file in claims for funds during the pre-accession period. Majchrzak credits a strong information and media campaign for this growing interest.

Magdalena Folta from ANEX Doradztwo Rolnicze (Agricultural Consulting) confirms the growing interest in consulting services. "The information system is certainly better, but also the farmers realized that he money is indeed coming in," she said.

ANEX helps individual farmers prepare claims for the EU's SPO-ROL aid programs and for direct subsidies. Legal persons are also among its clients both for SPO-ROL programs. "We also help our clients write business plans necessary to get preferential credits," Folta said.

To prepare a claim, the farmer has to gather the required documents and provide the consultants with information regarding his farm. "We always visit the farm and never prepare the claim just basing it on documents," Folta added. Individual clients usually want to invest in modernizing or erecting buildings, buying new machines or in lifestock.

Acquis Consulting specializes in preparing business plans and writing claims for structural funds and among its clients are enterprises and gminas. "Companies usually file claims to get funds to buy machinery or to modernize production. Gminas spend funds on roads or sewage systems," Majchrzak explains.

Although the information is better than in the pre-accession period, getting a claim accepted and receiving money has actually become more difficult. Under the structural program aimed at entrepreneurs only around 700 out of 5,000 claims were approved.

"Many claims are being rejected for technical reasons, also the criteria that the company has to fulfill are much more severe right now. In addition to this the amount of funds is limited and there won't be enough for every gmina," Majchrzak said.

"If the client is cooperative, the whole process can take about seven or eight weeks to gather the necessary documents and about a week to prepare the claim," she said. It takes a longer time to prepare claims for large entities.

The price range for preparing claims also differs. "Typical claims for individual farmers cost between zł.1,300 and zł.3,000, while claims for large projects from large entities could cost even up to zł.15,000," Folta explained.