Government to orchestra: Give us the money back
mainThe Finnish Ministry of Culture has ordered the Avanti chamber ensemble to repay half a million of euros, which it received in excess of its entitlement. The sum equals to a whole year’s budget and the orchestra says it will go bust if it has to repay.
A petition to the government to waive the debt has been signed by Pekka Kuusisto, Magnus Lindberg, Hannu Lintu, Susanna Mälkki, Sakari Oramo, Kaija Saariaho, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Dima Slobodeniouk, John Storgårds, and Lotta Wennäkoski.
Avanti chamber orchestra has been a major promter of new works by Kaija Saariaho, Magnus Lindberg and Esa-Pekka Salonen.
Um, how about telling us why?
Who, what, when, where, why are supposed to be addressed in the first paragraph of any news item.
A google translation of the petition (see original at http://www.avantimusic.fi/taiteilijoiden-kommentti-kamariorkesteri-avantin-tilanteeseen/) gives the impression that after 20 years of not providing any instructions or corrections to the orchestra, the Ministry has finally audited the financial statements and calculated that a sum was owing back to them. Google translation at https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=fi&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.avantimusic.fi%2Ftaiteilijoiden-kommentti-kamariorkesteri-avantin-tilanteeseen%2F&edit-text=&act=url
Better the petitioners should chip in and pay the overage.
At least a few of them earn a ton … they likely wouldn’t feel even a dent in their wallet.
Yep, couch cushion time. Might even be deductible as a promotional expense.
Who in their right mind, when receiving a half million Euros more than your allotment, believes that no one will ever notice? What exactly did they spend it on? A holiday to the Seychelles for everyone in the organization?
You are of course assuming that the money was easily recognizable as being “more than their allotment” which seems far from obvious here. More likely there was no fixed allotment to compare with, but rather a scheme where funds were requested or spent on a project-by-project basis, and only now is someone in the ministry saying that wasn’t what we had in mind at all for what we wanted to support, but it’s embarrassing that we were asleep at the tiller for a few decades…
Half a million euros in excess. The Finnish Ministry of Culture had surely a Swedish administrator making the payments. 🙂