The ministry wants to abolish the culture fund, as it does not have enough resources for it

Prague - The State Fund for Culture has not fulfilled its purpose for several years, which was to support cultural projects. The fund is in debt due to a failed lottery from the 1990s that was supposed to finance it. Several lawsuits are ongoing against the fund, and the fund itself is involved in other disputes. According to the Minister of Culture, the fund should be abolished.
    How the state should address the fund's debts or ensure that a currently non-functioning fund fulfills its purpose is being discussed by the ministers of culture and finance, said Marcela Žižková, spokesperson for the Ministry of Culture, to ČTK. However, the fundamental problem lies in the fact that there are insufficient resources to finance the projects that the fund should support, she added.
    The State Fund for Culture (SFK), which is one of the extra-budgetary funds just like the environmental fund or the housing development fund, was established in 1992. It was supposed to organize public collections and lotteries and distribute their proceeds, just like a portion of the profits from rented properties.
    Other state funds manage amounts in the tens of millions to billions of crowns, distributing tens of millions of crowns in grants. For example, from 2004 to 2007, the SFK had a budget of around 30 million crowns each year. However, it last distributed funds in 2005 - that was ten million crowns. In 2002, it distributed 5.5 million, and after the floods, it organized a collection for the restoration of monuments through its channels.
    For several years now, however, the fund has not distributed any money, with the ministry explaining that no MPs have nominated anyone to its board. Minister of Culture Václav Jehlička has several times stated that he wants to abolish the fund, as it does not fulfill the tasks for which it was established. The fund currently has approximately eight million crowns, which could be distributed if there were a board. Representatives of non-profit organizations in culture say that any additional amount that supports independent art is significant. According to the minister, several million is a small amount for the State Fund for Culture. It should have 100 or 500 million to be able to do anything, he says.
    However, the fund's revenues are almost zero, according to him. It was mainly created for distributing the proceeds from the planned lottery to support culture. Due to the launch of the lottery, the Ministry of Culture halted the preservation of two monuments in the center of Prague - the House at the Black Madonna and the nearby Palace at Hyberns. The lottery, however, failed, and the state paid the debts amounting to 226 million. The consequences of the actions taken then continue to this day.
    The SFK is repaying its debt to the Ministry of Finance. For repayments, it uses income from the use of the Houses at the Black Madonna and at Hyberns; however, in the case of the House at Hyberns, the operator pays nothing, as according to the ministry, the rent is "prepaid" due to the level of investment. The only significant income from rental property for the SFK comes from the National House in Vinohrady. The fund also receives half of the revenues from the rental of immovable cultural monuments from the ministry.
    Both houses stopped due to the lottery are also involved in lawsuits in which the fund is a party; none of the lawsuits brought against the SFK has been definitively resolved yet.
    The company PSJ Holding is suing the fund for the payment of 23 million crowns for reconstruction work on the House at Hyberns. The Municipal Court in Prague ruled that the fund must pay 19.6 million crowns. The fund appealed to the High Court in Prague last March.
    The House at the Black Madonna is associated with a lawsuit against the company Ko-Holding for the payment of 82 million crowns for the reconstruction of the house. This lawsuit has also been ongoing for several years and was returned by the Municipal Court in Prague to the District Court for Prague 6 last June. The SFK previously requested a potential reimbursement from the state budget but did not receive it.
    On the other hand, the fund is trying to enforce over three million crowns from the company Eurolotto - this is the money that the company contractually committed to pay to the fund for operating the lottery. The fund's claim has been registered in bankruptcy proceedings. The fund also sought 390,000 crowns from the Pinkerton company, whose employee allegedly stole property from the SFK in that amount during the operation of the lottery. The lawsuit was dismissed, so the fund has proposed enforcement against the company's employee and will demand at least partial compensation for damages, the spokesperson stated.