SAO Audit: Ministry of Culture corrected material accounting errors worth CZK 6.6 billion; financial statements are now considered reliable
PRESS RELEASE ON AUDIT NO 24/20 – 21 July 2025
The Supreme Audit Office (SAO) has reviewed the closing account, accounting, and financial statements of the Ministry of Culture (MoC) for the year 2024. The auditors also focused on the data submitted by the MoC for the evaluation of the state budget implementation. As the audit began during the 2024 accounting period, the MoC was able to continuously correct the deficiencies identified by the auditors.
The accounting errors identified would have had a significant impact on the balances reported in the MoC’s 2024 financial statements, amounting to CZK 6.6 billion. These deficiencies mainly concerned contingent liabilities arising from the provision of national subsidies. The MoC corrected the identified accounting errors and, in addition, implemented appropriate systemic measures in its accounting and reporting processes. Had such measures been taken following the previous SAO audit1, the MoC could have avoided CZK 6.4 billion in corrections in 2024. After these corrections, the SAO considers the MoC’s accounting to have been in compliance with legal regulations, and the financial statements to present a true and fair view of the subject of the accounting.
In the closing account of the MoC, the auditors found only non-material deficiencies, most of which were corrected by the MoC in a timely manner. The SAO found no errors in the data submitted by the MoC for evaluating the implementation of the 2024 state budget. As a result, the SAO considers both the closing account figures and the state budget performance data submitted by the MoC to be reliable.
Following the corrective measures implemented during the audit, the SAO assessed the internal control system of the MoC in the audited areas as effective.
Communication Department
Supreme Audit Office
1] Audit No 19/03 - Closing account of the state budget chapter "Ministry of Culture" for 2018, financial statements of the Ministry of Culture for 2018 and data submitted by the Ministry of Culture for evaluation of the state budget implementation in 2018.