Icon: enlarge
View of the Berlin Museum Island, which belongs to the foundation
Photo: Westend61 / Getty Images
In a new paper, the Federal Audit Office vehemently speaks out against the dissolution of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (SPK), as the Science Council had called for in 2020 and thus triggered a major discussion.
A division into smaller units would "probably lead to additional burdens for the federal government."
A clear order went to Minister of State for Culture Monika Grütters.
The Federal Audit Office expects that it "represents the economic interests of the federal government".
Grütters, who heads the SPK's Board of Trustees, had commissioned the Science Council with the assessment in the first place and did not seem unhappy with its recommendation to dismantle it.
Sedate tanker
The opinion of the Science Council presented last summer did not go down well everywhere; it sparked a major debate about how to deal with culture: The SPK is the largest cultural association in Germany, and one of the most important internationally.
It includes the State Museums in Berlin with 15 collections in 19 locations, as well as the State Library in Berlin, the Secret State Archive of Prussian Cultural Heritage, the Ibero-American Institute and the State Institute for Music Research.
The total budget for 2020 was 336 million euros and the number of employees was more than 2000.
more on the subject
Icon: Spiegel PlusIcon: Spiegel Plus19 Head of the State Museums in Berlin protest: “Free us at last!” By Ulrike Knöfel
For a long time, the association has been regarded as an overly sedate tanker that attracts less public than the large cultural institutions in other countries.
The Federal Audit Office supports the reform in its paper, even urges us to hurry, but apparently fears that a division into four independent areas would worsen the situation.
These new units would each have to carry out their own control and administrative tasks and to do so "build up their own administrative apparatus adequately equipped with human and material resources."
More synergy effects could be achieved under one roof.
According to the papers, the Court of Auditors has a lot to criticize about the foundation in its current constitution.
There are structural deficits, among other things, quality management, controlling and internal auditing seem to have been severely neglected, and there is also a lack of a concept to protect against corruption.
Icon: The mirror
