Are Business People Thieves?
According to an opinion poll conducted recently by Gazeta Wyborcza, more than 80% of Poles believe that the country’s authorities should monitor companies to a greater degree. People tend to assume, often wrongly, that entrepreneurs are thieves, schemers and fraudsters. The poll results are somewhat shocking and would lead one to believe that we live in a country where corruption runs rampant. And who is to blame? Owners of small companies “naturally”! Nearly half of those polled believe that successful businessmen managed to gain considerable profits by resorting to dishonest practices of various kinds. You have to know people in order to achieve success, especially politicians or other government officials, connections are crucial.
Approximately 25% think that breaking or bending the law is the method to use if one is looking to make financial gains, in the form of rigging auctions, stealing confidential business information or bribing. Only about 19% believe that business success is a direct result of honesty and hard work. The activities of dishonest entrepreneurs ought to be closely monitored. 8 out of 10 want more government officials tasked with controlling business activity and they claim that the controlling process is not thorough enough. In contrast to those opinions, Polish employers maintain that excessive and unnecessary investigation is detrimental to the development of small business ventures in Poland. In addition, OECD Economic Surveys Poland 2010 concludes that Poland is very strict when it comes to monitoring its entrepreneurs as there are as many as 40 agencies authorised to carry out inspections. These include the police, the district attorney’s office, the Internal Security Agency (ABW), the Central Investigation Bureau (CBŚ), the fire department, the Highest Chamber of Control (NIK), the tax office, the Social Insurance Office (ZUS), the Commercial Inspection Office and the Labour Inspection Office.
Gazeta Wyborcza
Newzar can be emailed to you directly
