Supreme Audit Office finds serious shortcomings National Gallery’s financial management

The National Gallery in Prague ignored procurement procedures when selecting suppliers for certain services between 2018 and 2020, according to the outcome of an audit conducted by the Supreme Audit Office. Auditors also found other serious shortcomings in the gallery’s financial management. Although the gallery had its own legal department, it hired three external companies to handle its agenda on behalf of the legal department. The gallery concluded seven contracts with the external contractors without a tender procedure. Moreover, three of them were invalid, because the gallery failed to provide the mandatory information and altered the terms of the contracts. Nevertheless, the gallery paid out over 4.5 million crowns on the basis of these contracts.