Mayors of several Polish cities are spending large sums of money on business trips to exotic countries to promote a given city abroad and to attract foreign investors.

The mayor of the southern city of Krakow, Jacek Majchrowski, has just gone to Peru to strengthen relations between the Polish capital of culture and the Peruvian city of Cuzco, established in 1989. Majchrowski will also visit Quito in Ecuador – Krakow’s partner-city since this year. The city councilors, who first thought that the mayor’s trip was a joke, are outraged that Majchrowski left the city at a time when a heated budget debate is on.

The daily Rzeczpospolita writes that the mayor of the eastern city of Bialystok, Tadeusz Truskolaski, goes on business trips so often that he has already acquired a nick-name “the biggest traveler in the eastern bloc”. However, in spite of frequent voyages in the last three years, the mayor has not managed to attract any investors. A recent visit to Taiwan and Hong Kong, which aimed at promoting Bialystok, raised much controversy. Before the end of 2009, Truskolaski is also going Norway. The mayor’s expenses on travelling for this year will cost tax payers 100,000 zloty (24,270 euro).

The mayor of the central city of Lodz, Jerzy Kropiwnicki, spent even more on what the daily alleges are ‘ineffective’ business trips. In 2009, Kropiwnicki’s travelling expenses exceeded 860,000 zloty (208,000 euro) and, in 2010, they may equal one million zloty (243,000 euro). Since 2002, when Kropiwnicki was elected mayor of Lodz, he has gone abroad 168 times. High travelling expenses are one of the reasons why the Democratic Left Alliance wants to dismiss the mayor in a referendum. (mg/mmj)

Source: Rzeczpospolita