One week after the fatal crash in Smolensk on April 10, the state funeral given in the southern city of Krakow for the late presidential couple, Maria and Lech Kaczynski, cost 3.7 million zloty.
The Malopolska provincial authorities have rubberstamped the expenses, although they have cast one VAT invoice issued by the Municipality of Krakow into doubt.
“The overall cost of the presidential funeral amounted to 3.7 million zloty (906,000 euro),” Malopolska Governor spokeswoman, Joanna Sieradzka informed, adding that the largest invoice to be settled was handed in by the Krakow Festival Office, demanding a sum of 2,258,000 zloty (550,000 euro).
A total of 19 VAT receipts were issued by Krakow’s Municipal Office for Communal Infrastructure and Transport (ZIKiT), although the Provincial authority has disputed one of them, amounting to 369,000 zloty.
“We think the invoice contains some inaccuracies,” Sieradzka says. The alleged bogus charge was issued by ZIKiT for the deconstruction and reconstruction of scaffolding around the Sukiennice Cloth Hall in Krakow’s Market Square, for which the infrastructure office had previously demanded around 167,000 zloty, under half of the sum currently demanded.
“We don’t quite understand what the problem is,” deputy Mayor of Krakow Wieslaw Starowicz told the press, adding that provincial representatives supervised the works and that the returned invoice will be sent back to the Provincial Authorities with an additional explanation as to the costs.
Lech and Maria Kaczynski were killed on April 10, when the presidential Tu-154 crashed on landing in heavy fog in the western Russian city of Smolensk. The funeral took place on April 18, with a number of foreign representatives present despite an ash cloud covering much of European airspace. (jb)
Source: PAP
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