Project International Clinical Research Center Brno two years behind the schedule
Press Release – July 9, 2009
From November 2008 to March 2009, auditors from the Supreme Audit Office (SAO) performed an audit of the state budget finances allotted for the realization of the project of constructing the International Clinical Research Centre in the premises of the St. Anne’s University Hospital in Brno. The Project ICRC Brno has been implemented since 2005. Over CZK 1.3 milliard were transferred into the state budget chapter 335 – Ministry of Health from 2006 to 2009 to implement the Project.
Reconstruction and renovation of some of the hospital’s compartments were additionally included into the conception of the Project ICRC Brno that was previously authorized in 2006 by the government decree No. 239. This increased significantly the final cost of the Project’s implementation as well as violated the government decree. The Project’s adjustments were not discussed with the Government and the respective decree was not invalidated. The Project’s implementation terms had to be extended for two years.
“The area development phase of the Project ICRC Brno and the construction began when the conception had already been adjusted. It was obvious that the developed area would not be suitable for the new criteria of the Project. The financial requirements increased by more than CZK 654 million because of the parameter variations. Aside from the state budget finances, the Projects has been funded from the faculty hospital’s own financial resources as well as from supplier credits“, said president of the SAO František Dohnal.
The Project ICRC Brno is supposed to be an important achievement that would contribute to the applied research, medical education, and public health care. The Project ICRC should develop a research centre, which could concentrate on new methods of cardiovascular diseases treatment, research and development of pharmaceuticals, and would mainly cooperate in international research programmes that are initiated and funded by sources abroad. ICRC, as an organizational, conceptual, and economical detachment of the St. Anne’s University Hospital in Brno, should become one of a small number of modern laboratories for biomedical basic and applied research within the European Union.
The auditing operation was included into the 2008 Audit Plan of the SAO under No. 08/32. Rudolf Němeček, Member of the SAO Board, controlled the operation and drew up the audit conclusion as well.
Bc. Radka Burketová
Press Speaker
Supreme Audit Office