The former director of NTM secured a luxury apartment in the museum

Prague - Former director of the National Technical Museum (NTM) in Prague Horymír Kubíček, who was dismissed by the Ministry of Culture in August due to financial machinations, secured a luxury state apartment at the museum with an indefinite contract. This was reported by today's Mladá fronta Dnes (MfD). According to the newspaper, this was discovered by auditors sent to the museum by Minister of Culture Jiří Besser (TOP 09). They do not want to comment on the findings officially until the audit is completed. Kubíček declined to comment.
    The former director arranged for an apartment of 112 square meters with a rent of 4000 korunas per month to be allocated to him during his tenure by his then-deputy Oldřich Rambousek. The newspaper pointed out that comparable apartments in the area are rented for about 50,000 korunas.
    Shortly after Kubíček's dismissal, the original contract disappeared from the museum's archive, but a copy reappeared in an amended form: if the museum terminates Kubíček's lease, it must offer him an equally sized apartment that is comparable in terms of location and amenities with the original rent, MfD reported.
    "We are encountering incredible things here. I would never have expected such a thing to be possible,” said Stanislav Beránek from Transparency International, who is involved in the audit at the museum. However, he refused to communicate specific examples of waste or corruption until the audit is completed.
    The secretary of the Minister of Culture Stanislav Brunclík admitted that strange things have been happening at the museum for years. "For example, we are indeed checking the rents of the apartments you are asking about,” he added.
    Minister Besser dismissed Kubíček with immediate effect on August 19 due to improper handling of public funds. Kubíček allegedly invoiced the museum for fees that he was not entitled to. Besser stated on Czech Television that the director himself approved an annual bonus of nearly 400,000 korunas for himself, which was half of all funds designated for bonuses at the museum. In addition, he invoiced himself 41,000 korunas per month for external work for the museum.
    Kubíček disagrees with the information that he enriched himself at the expense of the museum. He was replaced in office by Oldřich Rambousek, who resigned from this position a few days later.