The importance of the budget act from the perspective of financial  and constitutional law

The presented publication is an attempt to determine, from the perspective of the financial and constitutional law at the same time, the basic place and role that the budget act has in the political system of the Republic of Poland. The budget act is one of the most important programme documents of the state, on the basis of which the government manages the financial economy in a large measure. The Cabinet of the Republic of Poland, together with its ministers, is politically responsible for drawing up the budget bill, submitting it to the Sejm promptly and – after the budget year commences – executing the regulations after passing the bill, and finally reporting on how the regulations were executed. Difficulties and doubts that arise when concerning the budget procedure and carrying out the duty of the Cabinet to submit the budget bill in a given time limit are due to the fact that this deadline coincides with the parliamentary election, which could cause a possible change in the line-up in politics and, consequently, in the government. The existing legislature does not entirely eliminate (however, through the so-called emergency procedures, it does considerably minimise the risk of) a situation when, although the budget year commences, neither the state budget nor its normatively acceptable substitute is passed. It seems advisable to implement constitutional and statutory regulations that would be the solution to the lack of the normative fundamentals to carry out the financial policy of the state and eliminate the situation of the so-called budget void.

The Limits of MP’s Amendments of Government Drafts  of Regular Bills and the Budget Act

The article concentrates on the issue of regulations of legislative proceedings in the Sejm in the scope of the right of Members of Parliament to put forward amendments to government bills. Analysis of the provisions of the Constitution of April 2, 1997 and of the Standing Orders of the Sejm of 1992 proves that the current regulations, both with reference to the so-called regular bills, as well as the draft of the budget act, create great possibilities for Members of Parliament to make changes to the government legislative proposals during the stages of the first and the second reading of a bill. This creates a serious threat to the material integrity of the projects, as well as limits the effectiveness of the policy conducted by the government. The previous amendments to the Standing Orders of the Sejm made in order to limit the influence of MP’s amendments on the contents of government projects proved to be not effective enough; therefore, the Author calls for the further modernization of legislative proceedings aimed at guaranteeing effective protection of government projects against their deformation during the legislative proceedings in the Sejm.

Withdrawal of the Draft Budget Act as an Example of a Budget Void

The publication of the proposal constitutes the withdrawal of the draft budget act as an example of a budget void. In the Constitution of the Republic of Poland and the Public Finance Act, regulating public finances, the subject activities of the “budget void”. Analysis of legal regulations in the Constitution of the Republic of Poland and the Public Finance Act that there is no preliminary procedure for the withdrawal of the draft budget act by the Council of Ministers. Withdrawal of the draft budget bill results in the annihilation of that bill and is then made available without the basic basis for the functioning of the state in the fiscal year from January 1 of the year, unless the budget bill is adopted on the basis of a new draft budget bill. Therefore, he proposes the introduction of legal regulations that prevent a budget change from occurring at the time of withdrawal of the draft budget act.

Doubts Surrounding the Budget Act in the Constitution of the Republic of Poland on the Example of Selected Issues

This article is another voice in the discussion on the limits of the interpretation of legal provisions, based on the example of doubts that have recently arisen around the budget act in the Constitution of the Republic of Poland. This is an important issue because it concerns the basis of the state’s financial management in the budget year. The study raises the issue of the uncertainty of the legal situation of public authorities in the context of creative interpretation of law, which allows for crossing the boundaries of linguistic interpretation. In this respect, the authors will focus on two selected issues – the problem of discontinuing the draft budget act and the consequences of the President of the Republic of Poland referring the budget act to the Constitutional Tribunal. The main thesis of the work is related to the assessment of the rationality of all actions of state authorities.