Pojęcie i zakres środków publicznych a warunki pomocy publicznej dla przedsiębiorstw

Abstract

Considering the expanding functions and activities of public authorities the concept of public money has been attracting more and more attention. This category is very complex as the concepts of the public sector and public finance themselves are not explicitly defined. In the theory of finance many equivalents of the term public money can be found, such as public funds, public monetary resources, public spending. Even though the public finance act lists sources of public money, this does not resolve many theoretical and practical problems with subjecting a given type of funds to laws that are applicable to public money. The distinguishing trail of the Polish public finance system is the multiplicity of organizations that spend public money and the declining role of the national budget in its redistribution. 20 K. Mościbrodzka, Obciążenia wydatków publicznych restrukturyzacją schyłkowych gałęzi gospodarki, „Studia Finansowe”, nr 57, Instytut Finansów Wyższej Szkoły Ubezpieczeń i Bankowości, Warszawa 2001, s. 151. At the same time the role of funds and agencies that spend public money has been growing. This phenomenon should be deemed negative as it hinders rational comprehensive (that is holistic) management of public money. Besides, the diversification of organizations that are allowed to manage public money constrains the parliamentary control of its use. On January 1, 2001, the act “admissibility criteria of public assistance for entrepreneurs and its supervising” was put into effect. It aims to enhance rational spending of public money, to set up a public assistance system addressing entrepreneurs and to harmonize Polish and the EU laws with respect to protecting competition in the market sector. The act applies not only to entrepreneurs but also to a large number of public legal persons that offer assistance funded from public money either directly or indirectly.