House: SaS Describes Art Support Fund as Dysfunctional

Bratislava, April 2 (TASR) - The Art Support Fund (FPU) is paralysed, the board is missing members and some expert committees are dysfunctional, opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) leader and MP Branislav Groehling along with Rene Parak (SaS) stated at a press conference on Wednesday, calling on Culture Minister Martina Simkovicova (an SNS nominee) to publish calls for the vacant posts, while also criticising an amendment to the FPU law passed last year. "The fund is paralysed and currently in chaos. Simkovicova replaced experienced individuals who had worked there for many years ... with politically exposed individuals close to her who don't understand culture as well as the experts did before. As a result, FPU and its individual committees are completely inactive," remarked Groehling. Parak stated that there are currently only six members out of 13 on the fund's board. He said that the board is dysfunctional and noted that the ministry hasn't published calls to fill several vacant positions. According to Parak, he has information that the minister plans to appoint several members to the board soon, but he's concerned about the transparency of the process. He emphasised that no open calls have been published for the posts. Parak also stated that several expert committees are dysfunctional. "The ministerial appointees dismissed or didn't extend the membership of committee members. They either refused to accept new members, couldn't agree on them, or failed to do so in time," he said. He also highlighted the threat of lawsuits for failing to grant support to certain projects despite high ratings from expert committees. The head of the Culture Ministry stated on social media at the weekend that the FPU is functional and that calls for applications are continuing. lin/df