The Minister of Culture and National Heritage increased efficiency and flexibility of the system of cultural activity in line with the National Strategy for Cultural Development for2004-2013 and its Supplement for 2004-2020. He did so by decentralising the culture management system. The Minister broadened the scope of tasks in some of the existing public institutions of culture and established new ones, specialised in specific areas (like Polish literature and its heritage, music and dance, Polish theatre or museums).
Institutions of culture
Broadening the statutory tasks and objectives of the institutions of culture resulted in higher outlays for their functioning. In 2011, these costs went up 5 percent against 2010 (from less than PLN 786 million to more than PLN 825 million). For 2012, an amount 8.4 percent bigger than in 2011 was planned (nearly PLN 895 million). NIK pointed out, however, that although the Minister entrusted part of its tasks to the national institutions of culture, neither the headcount nor the number of organisational units in the Ministry was reduced.
According to NIK, the institutions of culture functioned properly. They discharged their statutory tasks as well the ones assigned by the Minister in an efficient and effective manner. They were responsible among others for handling the Minister’s Programmes, organising conferences, seminars, social campaigns and coordinating celebrations related to important anniversaries. They also undertook their own initiatives, for instance they carried out works related to research, expertise and education so as to develop different areas of cultural activity. The irregularities identified in the institutions of culture concerned first of all the principles of establishing pays for their employees. NIK also noticed that its recommendations made after previous audits had not been fully implemented.
The Minister of Culture and National Heritage violated the principle of transparency of public funds management. He provided financing for specific tasks to external entities by increasing general subsidies for institutions of culture. Nevertheless, according to the Public Finance Act, the funds from such subsidy should cover current activity of a subsidised institution. The Minister used that mechanism without informing the public of the principles and conditions of providing financial aid. As a result, there was a group of entities whose applications did not go through the entire financing application procedure as part of the Programmes of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage[1]. That practice made it impossible to indicate entities outside the public finance sector which were granted a subsidy or financing of another type. As a consequence, the principle of transparency of public funds management was breached. Additionally, by granting general instead of specific purpose subsidy the Minister in fact deprived himself of the opportunity to control the task performance by an external entity.
NIK also stated that the Minister entrusted the national institutions of culture with the tasks reaching beyond their statutory objectives and activities. It was e.g. related to commissioning expertise concerning content-related evaluation of applications sent to the Minister’s Programmes, paying fees to experts evaluating applications in the Minister’s Programmes and preparing a logotype and slogan for the campaign promoting the switch from analogue to digital broadcasting in terrestrial television.
[1] The Programmes of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage are the basis for obtaining the financing of tasks under the auspices of the state. On a yearly basis, the Minister develops a list of Programmes including instructions on how to evaluate applications and perform tasks as part of the Programmes. The Programmes and related priorities are implemented based on the regulations which include among others the list of eligible requesters, types of tasks that can be qualified for the Programme, criteria and scoring needed to evaluate applications, subsidy settlement conditions and requesters’ duties.
