Due to mismanagement, the deputy chief of heritage conservation in Brno has been dismissed

Brno/Praha - Due to issues in the management of the Brno heritage institute, the economic and operational deputy director Radomír Konečný was dismissed in recent days. This is reported by today's Lidové noviny (LN). The Prague management has ordered a review of the institute's finances. Preliminary results of the inspections will likely be known by Friday.
    The newspaper writes that according to some information, the Brno heritage institute employs more people than it should. It thus does not adhere to established rules, exceeding the annual sum by more than two million crowns. The institute manages approximately 150 million crowns annually.
    Konečný did not comment on the criticisms. The director of the Brno heritage institute, Petr Kroupa, points out that the institute has been facing financial difficulties for a long time. However, he is satisfied with the work of his subordinates. Some time ago, he told ČTK that despite the partial decrease in attendance at South Moravian castles and chateaus, their custodian managed to create a profit this year that is two million higher than last year. They organized more events for visitors at the heritage sites.
    Pavel Jerie, tasked with managing the National Heritage Institute (NPÚ), ordered an internal audit shortly after taking office at the end of September. "It deals with both economic and personnel matters among others. We already have some initial results; personnel matters are ongoing," Jerie told ČTK. Among other things, the audit aims to map the economic situation for the first three quarters of this year as a basis for the last quarter, as wage limits have been exceeded in certain workplaces, he added.
    According to him, wage limits were exceeded in some workplaces due to the situation arising from last year's dismissal of all branch directors of NPÚ, including the general director. "For a certain period, there may have been two directors or three economic deputies in some places. We need to distinguish between the issues caused by the dismissals of people, as this then creates a claim for severance pay," Jerie stated.
    Further overspending occurred because the new NPÚ branch in Liberec did not start operations on January 1, 2006, for the same reasons; it began its activities only in February. "As a result, the people who had notice until December 31, 2005, had to be rehired, while people were already hired in Liberec who had contracts starting from January 1, 2006, resulting in overlapping higher demands on wage costs," he said.