Appeal to the government regarding the Polish post office. “no more privileges”

Leviathan emphasizes that “the situation of Pośta Polska (…) is tragic and may even threaten its bankruptcy.” He adds that a monopoly will not improve the company's performance.

– Contrary to appearances, the crisis in the company can be an important lesson that will allow you to “move forward” and prepare the traditional and electronic delivery system for the 21st century. Not only nationally, but pan-European as well. Poczta Polska will certainly play an important role in this new postal system. We just have to abandon the idea that a monopoly should guarantee the improvement of the functioning of this institution – says Dr. Aleksandra Musielak, Director of the Digital Market Division of the Leviathan Confederation.

Dr. Musielak believes that “if Poczta Polska is to have exclusivity for specific services to the state, this exclusivity cannot be a method of maintaining inefficiencies in other areas.”

We call on the government, the opposition, the regulator and other stakeholders for a public, honest and prompt debate on the necessary reform of both Poczta Polska and the delivery system in Poland, says Dr Musielak.

Konfederacja Lewiatan reminds that PP is the designated operator since 2016. By 2022, it has achieved more than PLN 100 million in profits from the provision of universal services.

“These are the so-called data From the regulatory report prepared annually by Poczta Polska, verified by experts selected by the President of the Office of Electronic Communications and published on UKE's website. In seven years, Poczta Polska has achieved a total net profit of PLN 200 million,” notes Lewiatan. He adds that in seven years the company earned PLN 300 million by delivering letters and parcels.

If the company did nothing but deliver letters, it must have a large surplus as a resultWhich in 2023 would be enough to pay each of the 60,000 employees a well-deserved bonus of PLN 5,000 – Lewiatan believes.

According to Lewiatan, the company itself and the wrong decisions it made are responsible for Poczta Polska's problems. There is also politics in the background. This has caused, for example, courier services, on which Poczta Polska's competitors can make money, to generate deficits, resulting in the current situation when it comes to the insolvency of the national operator.

Instead of reforming the Polish post office, the focus was on increasing its privileges and monopoliesBecause they had to provide it with the necessary funds for its operation, which would allow it to finance the inefficiency of the management – says Dr. Musielak.

What is it about? About among others Monopoly in electronic supply granted to PP under the Act. Lewiatan recalled that the act was originally supposed to take effect in early 2020.., but the deadline for the introduction of electronic delivery in December 2023 was even postponed until January 1, 2025. – This happened because this system was not fully and properly prepared by Poczta Polska – says Dr. Aleksandra Musielak.

“The Leviathan Confederation warned of such a scenario. However, no decision was made to change the operating model of Poczta Polska in a way that would guarantee a real reform of this institution. As a result, electronic delivery has not been widely implemented. On this day,” adds Leviathan.

Instead of reforming Poczta Polska, the operator's net worth financing model was changed. While in 2016-2020 the post office generated a total profit of PLN 1 billion from universal services, the change in the financing system led to the loss of PLN. 192 million in 2021 and PLN 645 million in 2022. Lewiatan, who supports, in principle, a system of net cost co-financing from the state budget, points out that this model requires very high transparency and detailed supervision. We read in Lewiatan's press release.

According to him, PP's problems are not a threat to it, but an opportunity for “real transformation for the benefit of all stakeholders”.