NPÚ announced competitions for new positions of regional office directors

Prague - The National Heritage Institute (NPÚ) has announced a selection process for filling the positions of directors for new regional expert workplaces. The establishment of four regional administrations with centers in Prague, České Budějovice, Kroměříž, and Sychrov is part of the NPÚ restructuring, which will begin next year and which, despite opposition from some experts, was recently signed by the Minister of Culture Alena Hanáková (TOP 09 and STAN). NPÚ informs about the announcement of the competition on its website. Interested parties can apply until October 24.
     The creation of new regional administrations has been one of the most criticized aspects of the restructuring. Some critics, including employees of the institute, have expressed concerns that this step could lead to a separation of the professional activities of heritage conservationists and the management of monuments; however, the NPÚ leadership dismisses this. Critics also find the establishment of new administrative centers redundant at a time when the current regional expert workplaces were only recently finished, with one in each region.
     The four new centers, in their opinion, cover too large areas, and employees will have to travel long distances to regularly visit heritage sites. For example, the new regional heritage administration in Prague will oversee 28 monuments in the Central Bohemia, Ústí nad Labem, and Karlovy Vary regions, while the office in Sychrov will manage 18 sites in the Liberec, Hradec Králové, and Pardubice regions.
     The director of NPÚ, Naďa Goryczková, who prepared the restructuring of her institute and is also establishing the new general directorate, states that the changes are intended to improve the care for monuments, which is reportedly unbalanced. She claims that the administrative separation of professional care and monument management will not lead to the potential removal of heritage sites from state management, as critics of her plan fear. It concerns adjustments in the economic and budgetary sector, clearer definition of budgeting rules, as well as funding and more efficient management of financial resources, says the NPÚ management.
     The NPÚ is the largest contributory organization of the Ministry of Culture. It was established in 2003 when separate regional heritage care institutes were merged. It manages an annual budget of 1.3 billion crowns, approximately half a billion of which the institute earns. The volume of construction and restoration contracts related to heritage is also significant, with experts estimating that up to one billion crowns circulate annually in this area.