Health Ministry violates rules for granting subsidies, audit says

Prague, July 9 (CTK) - The Czech Health Ministry violated the deadlines for granting subsidies and it neglected the check of their use in 2010 and 2011, the Supreme Audit Office (NKU) said in its report it passed to CTK yesterday.

The auditors checked the drawing and use of the state money to be spent on health programmes that are to improve the conditions and quality of life of the disabled and chronically ill.

According to the report, the Ministry violated the deadline by which it ought to have decided on the subsidies for NGOs by several months.

The existence of NGOs mostly depends on the subsidies.

In 2011, some NGOs waited for the money until July, although under the official schedule the decision was to be made by February, the report said.

According to the NKU, the ministry also underestimated the check of the subsidised projects. There were 501 of them in two programmes in 2010 and 2011.

The ministry only checked the use of the money in two of them, although the check is compulsory by law.

Over 164 million crowns were distributed for health programmes among NGOs in 2010 and 2011.

Nevertheless, a number of projects were rejected, the report said. The interest in the subsidies twice exceeds the financial means of both programmes, it added.

From September 2011 till March 2012, the NKU checked the use of money within the Programme of Grant Support and the Programme of Equal Opportunities for the Disabled.

($1 = 20.303 crowns)