The governor of Lower Silesia will meet with the authorities of the Klodzko region on Sunday. Purpose: to speed up the payment of benefits and to provide as much assistance as possible to flood victims. – I am convinced that this process should accelerate rapidly, – assured Marcin Kirwinski, the authorized representative of the government for post-flood reconstruction.
The procedure for submission of application and payment of benefits to flood victims is ongoing. This does not happen without problems. Voivodeships point to the stagnation of municipalities, while local governments explain the insufficient number of officials.
– The most important thing is the immediate payment of money to the victims. The Ministry of Internal and Administrative Affairs and voivodships will solve this issue directly. (…) Here I am sure that the process must be accelerated – Marcin Kirwinski, the authorized representative of the government for post-flood reconstruction, told us on Saturday.
As he said, so far the first tranche of benefits from the so-called emergency aid. These are benefits in the amount of PLN 2,000 and PLN 8,000. – Now we are waiting for the acceleration of payment of repair allowances of PLN 100,000 and PLN 200,000. However, the main area I am dealing with is funding for the actual reconstruction process, i.e. rebuilding the destroyed infrastructure, – explained Kirvinsky.
What support can local government officials rely on?
Kirvinsky emphasized that several ministries are involved in helping flood victims. – Minister of Education (ed.) Barbara Novaka launched a competition for the repair of schools damaged by floods. More than PLN 400 million has been allocated for this purpose. The Minister of Sports (ed.) Slavomir Nitras launched such a program for the reconstruction of sports infrastructure. Funds for current investments are also paid on a regular basis. This support comes from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration, he said in an interview with TVN24 reporter.
The representative of the government on reconstruction also said that Bank Gospodarstva Krajovego has prepared a project for local governments to build new municipal housing that will be used by flood-affected people.
– Together with the local government authorities, we are also preparing the infrastructure reconstruction program. The reserve money of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration (PLN 100 million – editor) was also directed to the waters of Poland, because the flooded waters need to be cleaned. This should be done before winter – added Marcin Kirwinski.
The governor of Lower Silesia meets with the authorities of the Kłodzko region
On Friday, RMF FM reported that the Minister of Interior and Administration Tomasz Siemoniak and Marcin Kirwiński invited the voivodeships of Lower Silesia and Opole to a meeting. The aim is to discuss the problems of the local government officials in relation to the formalities that the municipality should complete so that the residents can receive benefits for the reconstruction and repair of houses and farm buildings.
On Sunday, the governor of Lower Silesia issued a statement announcing that he and the mayor of Kłodzko had taken urgent measures to speed up pension payments.
“The amount for the first 107 families in the amount of PLN 10,254,000 will be paid already in the first days of the week. The payment process will be significantly accelerated. The mayor also requested additional officials from outside the commune to speed up the assistance. Activity of the Center social protection in the example of support for construction engineers, in city commissions, therefore, such support is offered this week,” the statement said.
Voivode Maciej Avizen confirmed that so far 1,050 families from Kłodzko have been given emergency aid of PLN 2,000 and PLN 8,000. 550 families were given 1000 PLN allowance.
The voivodeship office also announced that a voivode meeting with all heads of communes and heads of Klodzko district will be held on Sunday. “The goal of our joint activity should be to speed up the payment of benefits and provide comprehensive assistance to flood victims,” the statement said.
“People are very tired.”
Officials of the local government, talking to journalists for several days, emphasize that the completion of all the procedures related to the submission of applications for the relief of flood relief requires a lot of time and the involvement of many officials, first of all, the employees of the Social Protection Centers. units that have to perform other auxiliary functions.
What is the “path” that officials and local government officials should take to get Kowalski to apply for help? Every flood-affected resident should have a damage assessment commission. It consists of employees of the social welfare center and engineers. In Ladek-Zdroj, the stage of organizing the commission became difficult.
– We are a small commune, we don't have qualified experts who can calculate the damage, that's why we had to ask for help. And this is where the initial shortness of breath comes from. But we informed about the need and we received the necessary help, – explained the mayor of Ladakh-Zdroj, Tomas Nowicki.
Commissions prepare damage assessment reports, based on which the amount of benefit should be calculated. Then it remains to enter the program into the system. – We had to ask for help from authorized social workers, so people came to us from Kłodzko, Wołbrzych and Wrocław. It's been two months since we've been working in this whirlwind for a few hours. People in social welfare offices and centers are simply exhausted and starting to collapse, Nowitzki noted.
Only when the applications are in the system, the voivodeship offices evaluate them and apply for funding from the ministry.
Mayor Ladek-Zdroj noted that despite everything, an “administrative rhythm should be maintained.” – We are dealing with state funds. “No employee of the commission or office will sign an unknown decision, because we will also monitor the spending of these funds,” he adds.
Main photo source: TVN24
