Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion in Roma Localities refutes rumors of financial waste

The Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion in Roma Localities has been under constant attack since it began. Critics claim its work costs hundreds of millions of crowns annually and frequently refer to the Agency as a “black hole” as far as money is concerned. Martin Šimáček, director of the Agency, has explained on more than one occasion how it is financed and how much its operations cost the taxpayer. In his view, this criticism is destructive and uses numbers that are far from accurate. Šimáček spoke about the issue most recently on the program “O Roma Vakeren”, broadcast by the Radiožurnál station of Czech Radio.

“It’s said we are allegedly managing CZK 400 million a year, but the real number is completely different. The Agency receives CZK 11.3 million from the state budget annually, and then another approximately CZK 16 million from Operation Program Human Resources and Employment. Therefore, we work with a total of approximately CZK 27 million annually,” Šimáček said.

The director says the Agency’s work costs approximately CZK 750 000 annually per locality. Since the Agency is meant to operate in each locality for three years, the total costs per locality are approximately CZK 2 million. Šimáček says this is how much it costs to hire a local consultant, local assistants, and to develop a situational analysis. “For three-quarters of a million crowns annually, we are doing our best to change the situation, not just at the level of preparations and support for project design, but also to change the inclusion or social policy itself directly in the place concerned. We negotiate with municipal leaderships about these changes, we create an environment in which different decisions are taken to help people engage in society,” he said.

The Agency’s operational costs, at approximately CZK 27 million annually, are usually considered separate from the financing of services and other measures acquired by nonprofit organizations, municipalities and other subjects for their projects thanks to the Agency. “That financing does annually exceed hundreds of millions of crowns, and those monies directly finance services and work with clients at local level. Agency support is a kind of value-added to that direct money, but it is a whole order of magnitude smaller,” Šimáček said.

All of the financial flows through the Agency are under constant, microscopic scrutiny by various audits and monitoring. “The Agency is currently undergoing an internal audit of the Office of the Government, which means that if we have any problem with our financial management it will be addressed at the level of the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic,” Šimáček said, pointing out that there is a simultaneous evaluation underway of the Agency’s activities from which it will soon be evident what has been achieved in its pilot localities. “Moreover, the Operation Program Human Resources and Employment has its own monitoring mechanisms. We must specify in detail how we have spent our annual CZK 16 million in the monitoring reports,” Šimáček said.