WARSAW (Reuters) – Polish refiner Orlen is estimated to have lost 5 billion zlotys ($1.22 billion) on the Olefins petrochemicals project, State Assets Minister Jakub Jaworowski said on Wednesday as he presented the results of an audit of state companies.
“The losses in the Olefin project are estimated at 5 billion zlotys,” Jaworowski said.
Orlen has said it will not continue with the project in its current form and will decide by December between “optimising”, suspending or terminating the investment.
The Ministry of State Assets’ audit of state treasury companies was launched after the new coalition government of Donald Tusk took power.
The audit revealed losses from unsuccessful investments and unjustified expenses at the companies of at least “several billion zlotys”, Jaworowski said in a press release.
The largest were those incurred by Orlen, he said.
He said about 50 notifications have been submitted to the prosecutor’s office and there may be more.
Executives who served at state companies under the previous Law and Justice (PiS) government have previously rejected accusations of wrongdoing.
($1 = 4.0969 zlotys)
(Reporting by Marek Strzelecki, writing by Pawel Florkiewicz; editing by Jason Neely)