Supervisory Boards of State Treasury companies facing paralysis

The legislature has omitted interim statutory measures, giving rise to no end of problems.

Art. 19c of the legislative Act regarding rules for management of state assets came into force on 15 September, introducing a proscription on sitting on the Supervisory Board of more than one company in which the State Treasury holds a majority stake, local self-government body, municipal entity, or state legal units  (as well as of companies in which such entities hold majority interests). The open source data suggests that there are some companies in the market for which the status of their Supervisory Board members in light of this new rule may be an issue.

The reasoning submitted along with the draft of this regulation professes that it is intended to fill in for the repealed (as of 15 September) provisions of the legislative act capping remunerations at state-owned enterprises which restricted combination of different roles at different public sector entities (and, as a corollary, limited their earnings). As explained by the legislature, this rearrangement of the laws was intended to consolidate within a single statute the rules and criteria for members of Supervisory Boards of companies affiliated, whether directly or indirectly, with the State Treasury. The net effect is that the circle of entities whose Supervisory Board members are subject to the restrictions has been expanded (…)

The full text of this article is available (in Polish) in Rzeczpospolita daily (21.11.2019). If you are interested in an English-language version or in discussing the issues raised herein with one of our lawyers, please contact: kontakt@gessel.pl