Transparency of municipal companies in the largest Polish cities

Abstract The article discusses issues around municipal companies’ transparency in dealing with public transport in the largest Polish cities (with over 300,000 inhabitants) – Warsaw, Kraków, Wrocław, Łódź, Poznań, Gdańsk, Szczecin, Lublin, and Bydgoszcz. The authors of the article based their research on the report “Transparency of municipal companies in the Visegrad countries. Pilot applications for Poland,” which was prepared by the Watchdog Citizens Network. The questions from the report were simplified and adapted by the authors of the article to address 10 research areas: access to public information, inspections, financial matters, company staff, EU and state funding, public procurement, anti-corruption activities, employee employment, sponsorship and grants, and use of property. The aim of the article is to research the transparency of municipal companies in the nine largest Polish cities. The research hypothesis – which was affirmed in part – was as follows: The more transparent a company is, the more additional functions it has than just that of a carrier.