NSA subsidies should be transparent, says a member of the supervisory commission | iRADIO

Last week, in an interview with Czech Radio, you said that, based on recent events, the quality of inspection activities and the frequency of inspections by the NSA will be improved. Is this your wish or has it already been decided?
We talked about it at the last supervisory committee, because it was at a time when the case was fresh and the Sokol problem was being solved.

“If there are around 8,000 entities receiving subsidies for sports, then it is necessary to realize that the control activity for one hundred cases is not sufficient,” says Jan Sobotka (STAN)

Members of the NSA board are also present at the meeting, so we asked about how the inspections are going, how often they are, if we have adequate staffing and how it could be going forward, because these things are likely to follow.

Does this mean that the tennis association case showed that the NSA’s controls were insufficient?
It’s a little different. The NSA, in its current composition, actually started functioning only in April of last year and replaced the Ministry of Education. The controls were not quite set up well in my opinion. The NSA is only now discovering loopholes and starting to improve the quality of its control activities.

On the National Sports Agency’s website, under the “inspection activity” link, there is an Excel spreadsheet that lists 107 inspections that began in 2022 and 2023. Is that all the inspections the NSA has done?
As the chairman explained to us, these are in-depth checks, because the NSA continuously checks individual recipients even with a basic cursory check. That said, these are not all checks.

What do you call that number?
It seems insufficient to me, because if there are around eight thousand entities receiving subsidies for sports, then it is necessary to realize that the control activity for one hundred cases is not sufficient.

From your point of view, what would be sufficient when 8,000 subjects receive the subsidy?
It is necessary to increase control activity and its frequency, for example, with specific sinners. On the other hand, personnel reinforcement is needed, because it is not within the power of the agency, when there are probably two to three people, to secure it.

When could the changes be at the earliest?
We have the nearest meeting this month, so I think it will be heard there, and I assume that the changes should take place within six months at the latest.

Staff shortage

You already talked about the fact that the National Sports Agency does not have enough controllers. How many do you imagine there should be?
A reinforcement of two people would be optimal.

Is it realistic?
Yes.

Even in the sense that the government will have to add money to the National Sports Agency, free up two new table places, is it still realistic?
Even so, I think it’s realistic.

Does that mean you have already talked about it with your colleagues within your coalition parties and movements?
No, but I think that is such a significant and evident need that the National Sports Agency has that we will achieve that.

Your colleague, vice-chairman of the supervisory commission of the National Sports Agency, Arnošt Štěpánek from the Pirate Party, spoke last week about the fact that, in his opinion, it would help if the NSA published down to the last crown, to whom and for what it sends public money, so that everyone can see what went to whom. Do you agree with that?
I totally agree with that.

And are any steps already being taken in this direction to make it so?
The results of uniform subsidy calls are published on the NSA website. I don’t know about the national sports centers and other subsidies, but a large part of what the beneficiaries receive appears there.

That is: what is on the web now, is it sufficient?
I think it could get even deeper.

And what specifically would you elaborate on?
The NSA allocates almost seven billion crowns and I think it would be good to provide all the information about the subsidies provided. Roughly six billion is distributed to already existing operational matters and only one billion is for investments. All money that goes through the NSA should be disclosed.

What lesson for the NSA comes from the case surrounding subsidies for the tennis association? And where should those who suspect that money from sports subsidies are not being used properly go? Listen to the entire interview in the audio recording at the beginning of the article.

Tomáš Pancíř, fos

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