12.04.2022
Author: Ph.D. Stanisław Michałowski - advocate, partner
The Homeland Defense Act will come into force in Poland on April 23, 2022. Among other things, the Act introduces the possibility of acquiring military equipment for Polish Armed Forces in the form of leasing. Thus, the expectations of representatives of the Ministry of Defense will be met, who referred with appreciation to this type of procedure used in other countries. The regulation is aimed at strengthening the industrial defense potential of Polish Armed Forces and securing its needs in the best possible way, as well as making the forms of acquiring military equipment more flexible.
The Act first clarifies that companies of industrial defense potential, the Industrial Development Agency Joint Stock Company, Polish Development Fund Joint Stock Company, executive agencies and other state legal persons may acquire military equipment for leasing to Polish Armed Forces. In such a case, leasing installments are to be covered from the state budget or from the Armed Forces Support Fund established at Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego. In the case of financing from the state budget, the Minister of National Defense will have to give his approval for the acquisition of equipment, including the amount and dates of payment of leasing installments.
Another adopted measure is to allow entities to which the Public Procurement Law applies – regardless of their statutory or regulatory objectives – to acquire shares in companies and to make payments or donations to executive agencies and other legal persons that acquire military equipment for lease to Polish Armed Forces. The law also clarifies that Polish State Treasury securities and bonds guaranteed by the Polish State Treasury may be the subject of these donations.
The acquisition of military equipment may also take the form of leasing under the execution of international agreements.
In case of acquiring military equipment in the form of leasing, it will be assumed, for the purposes of any procedures or proceedings necessary for the proper use of this equipment, that this equipment is the property of Polish Armed Forces. The intention of adopting the above legal fiction is to guarantee the correct organizational level related to the process of, among others, vehicle registration and operation.
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