Encyklopedia Administracji Publicznej MW Pivot Skin

VILLAGE FUND (Polish: fundusz sołecki) – financial resources that can be separated from the → municipality budget and guaranteed for the → village (sołectwo) to carry out projects within the municipality’s own tasks aimed at improving the living conditions of the residents and which are in line with the municipality’s development strategy. The funds of the v.f. may also be used for expenses related to the removal of the effects of natural disasters within the meaning of the Act on the state of natural disaster. The institution of v.f. has been operating in the local government finance system since 2009 and since 2014 on the basis of the new act on the village fund. The creation of v.f. is in the powers of the municipal council, a resolution on the approval to separate the fund applies for subsequent budget years, and the resolution on the non-approval of its separation applies only for the budget year following the year in which it was enacted. The amount of funds allocated to a given village is calculated on the basis of the formula specified in the act, and the basic variable is the number of residents of the village. The condition on which the resources are granted from the fund in the financial year is the submission of a request by a given village to the village mayor/mayor/president of the city. The municipality council while making decision on the budget may reject the request of the village if it finds that the tasks the village is planning to implement do not meet the conditions set out in the act. V.f. is not a special-purpose fund within the meaning of the Act on public finance. V.f. can be interpreted as an element of the municipality’s financial economy and a financial instrument for the direct execution of its tasks by the villages. The benefits for the municipality include additional funds from the state budget, to which it is not entitled in case the fund is not created. From the point of view of the residents of the village, it is an instrument of budgetary participation, that is, co-deciding on spending a certain part of public funds from the municipality budget. Its purpose is to support the initiatives of the residents of villages [ A. Mirska ].

Literature: M. Augustyniak, Jednostki pomocnicze gminy [Municipality’s auxiliary units], Warszawa 2010 ■ M. Paczocha, Fundusz sołecki jako narzędzie realizacji zadań gminy przez sołectwa [The village fund as a tool for implementing the municipality’s tasks by village councils], „Finanse Komunalne” 2009, no. 7-8 ■ M. Wójcik, Fundusz sołecki w świetle w nowych regulacji prawnych [The village fund in light of new legal regulations], „Prawo Budżetowe Państwa i Samorządu” 2014, no. 4.