The scope of changes and expansion of the ‘SIA’ IT system necessary for implementation were huge, a dozen times larger than in previous years. There was a real risk that ARMA would not realize payments of more than 95% of the financial envelope, and that would result in sanctions from the EU - said Witold Malina, Head of Agriculture at Asseco Poland. Despite enormous pressure we were able to successfully complete this project and ARMA had a system in place which allowed for around 98% of payments to be realized up until the beginning of June. The scale of system expansion can be illustrated by the fact that the EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development moved the deadline from 30 June to 15 October because a large number of EU countries simply couldn’t cope with this challenge. We’ve done it in Poland. This wouldn’t be possible without the dedication of ARMA and our specialists. Thanks to the constructive approach shown by the Agency board and the cooperation of both teams, we responded to all the challenges as they happened and kept gradually implementing system modules - he added.
Currently, payments were made to more than 99% of the entitled recipients. Approximately PLN 14bn in direct payments were transferred to their accounts.
Daniel Obajtek, Chairman of ARMA – There was a time when we seriously thought we might not make these payments. This was a very serious problem. However, thanks to strengthening the IT department, the employment of additional people, a certain split up, conversations with the contractor - whom I’d also like to thank – and the involvement of my vice-chairmen, as well as the commitment of the employees at all the district offices, we were able to make the payments and are at the tail end of ‘Kampania 2015’.