About Military Property Agency

The Military Property Agency is a government agency, established in 1996, whose primary responsibilities include:

• Selling or otherwise dispose of redundant real property and movables for the National Defense Ministry and for the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration, using modern market instruments;
• Supplying the Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland with universal (IT, telecommunications, logistic) equipment, materials (fuels, lubricants, uniforms and food) and fuels for heating purposes, using most advanced technologies (web-based auctions) and implementation of other tasks of strategic importance for the Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland and the National Defense Ministry.

The proceeds generated by the MPA from selling former military property are transferred to the Armed Forces Modernization Fund at the National Defense Ministry. From the beginning of its operation the MPA allocated over PLN 1.2 billion for this purpose.

Currently the Military Property Agency is being transformed into a modern, civilian logistics agency operating in accordance with the top world standards. Separation of MPA’s responsibilities from the structures of the Defense Ministry is based, among other things, on the following premises:

• Rationalization of budgetary spending related to national defense;
• The need to recruit a team of professionals who will ensure protection of the interests of the state, the Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland and the Defense Ministry in relations with the private sector;
• The need to raise external funding for the tasks of the defense sector, which is impossible to be done by the Armed Forces or the National Defense Ministry for formal legal reasons.

An example of assignments entrusted to the MPA is, among other things, the SCOR satellite centre, in which the Agency increased its shareholding from 12% to 50%. Another example is WP Energia, a subsidiary company of the Agency, which is taking over military heat distribution networks and organizes their modernization (for ca PLN 350 million) according to market principles. An agreement has also been signed recently concerning establishment of a partnership Port Lotniczy Modlin, in which the MPA, the PPL and the local government hold 1/3 of the shares each.

For similar reasons, the EU and NATO have assumed that “civilian” logistic functions for the armed forces should be entrusted to specialized institutions, whose responsibilities are frequently much greater than those of the MPA. This is in compliance with the general rules of organization of efficient and cost effective states, since like in the Polish Armed Forces the standard in the EU and other modern states is centralized procurement and centralized management of state-owned properties by professionals operating on a statewide scale.

In the course of its operations the MPA has shown that it meets those challenges halfway. As a state-owned legal person it is a transparent structure for state control authorities, which is of fundamental importance in the light of the program for counteracting corruption.

The MPA provides significant support to local governments on behalf of the Armed Forces and the Ministry of National Defense. Since the beginning of its operation until the end of September 2006, the MPA transferred to local governments without a tender procedure real property originally valued at almost PLN 418 million. The MPA paid to local governments PLN 94 million in local taxes.

The Agency has been consistently modernized in almost all aspects of its operations so as to become a modern logistic agency with the civilian form of governance. All that has been done in a situation of stable operations, and even increased efficiency, as until September 2007 the MPA transferred more than PLN 1 billion 143 million for the needs of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland. Properties are sold more efficiently, with better economic effects. The MPA’s Management intends to have the agency comparable to military logistic agencies of major NATO states already next year.