NKÚ: The Ministry of Culture sent subsidies even to the owner of the casino

Prague - The Ministry of Culture sent nearly a million grant for the restoration of monuments to the owner of a casino in Hradec Králové, also making mistakes in the financing of the UNESCO program. The deficiencies were revealed by the Supreme Audit Office (NKÚ) during an audit of the distribution of funds for the restoration of monuments. The CTC was informed about this today by NKÚ spokesperson Olga Málková. Errors also appeared with the grant recipients. According to the ministry, the findings of the NKÚ are targeted.
     "The Ministry of Culture approved the project for the reconstruction of the Palmová zahrada building in the city of Hradec Králové worth 965,000 crowns under the Regeneration program, even though the private owner stated in the application that there would be a casino in the building,” the spokesperson said.
     According to MK spokesperson Markéta Ševčíková, the NKÚ audit concerned hundreds of the ministry's properties worth hundreds of millions of crowns and from this perspective, the criticized mistake in the order of hundreds of thousands of crowns is a “detail.” The audit also pertained to the period when Václav Riedlbauch was at the head of the ministry. "We consider the findings of the audit office to be targeted. Operating a casino in the Czech Republic is not a crime, and many properties of the Ministry of Culture house hotels, restaurants, and similar facilities,” Ševčíková told the CTC today. She added that criticisms from the NKÚ could lead to reflection on how to better set up grant rules.
     According to the NKÚ spokesperson, the office violated the principles of the program for the regeneration of urban monument reserves and urban monument zones, according to which contributions should serve to protect objects for cultural and educational use or other public benefit activities. The operation of these facilities should also be provided by physical and legal persons of a non-profit nature.
     The NKÚ also found that in the UNESCO program, the ministry approved, for example, a project for the virtual and photographic processing of monuments; however, the recipient purchased a personal computer, camera, monitor, and lens for 160,000 crowns, which was a third of the grant. "However, a basic requirement for selecting projects within the UNESCO program should be adequate material equipment of the grant applicant. The Ministry of Culture did not set this criterion at all,” Málková pointed out.
     During the audit, the NKÚ also examined some grant recipients. The audit revealed that the city of Tábor reimbursed the owner of a cultural monument three million crowns in 2008 and 2009, even though the owner did not provide proof that the planned repairs had actually been carried out. Mladá Boleslav also did not conduct proper control of the conditions for granting grants. The South Bohemian Region did not return 170,000 crowns saved on one project. Mistakes were also made by the municipal authorities of Velké Meziříčí, Planá, and Chrudim.
     The auditors focused on examining the urban conservation areas and urban heritage zone regeneration program (Regeneration program) and the support program for UNESCO heritage (UNESCO program). According to the spokesperson, in the Regeneration program, 118 projects worth 51.9 million crowns were examined, while in the UNESCO program, seven projects worth three million crowns were scrutinized. According to Málková, the audit of the Regeneration program revealed inconsistency in the system of providing financial resources, insufficient methodology governing the provision of contributions, or inadequate evaluation of the social effectiveness of using state support.
     "Given the identified systemic deficiencies, it is necessary to amend the Guidelines of the Regeneration program,” Málková stated.
From 2008 to 2010, the Regeneration program allocated 410.3 million crowns. This was about a tenth of the money that projects requested. In the UNESCO program, grants covered almost half of the requested funds.