Criticism is levelled at the government by small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) proprietors due to the methods employed to save big state-owned firms from bankruptcy. Their suppliers are reproaching the government for recovery programmes that offer them as prey, stressing that they aim at making SMEs go bankrupt, sending thousands onto the street.
The cases of the Stocznia Szczecinska (SS) and Porta Holding (PH) shipyards, the Huta Czestochowa (HCz) steel plant, and the Kompania Weglowa Coal holding can serve as the best examples here. When SS and PH were declared bankrupt last year, their assets were brought to Allround Ship Service, a company with the lowest overdue liabilities, leaving ZL400m of unpaid debt, which hurt several hundred subcontractors, the Zaklady Cegielskiego ship and locomotive maker among them.
