Violations in the filing of cultural objects from archaeological excavations, in ticket sales and in income from rental of premises are just some of the problems the National Audit Office found in financial records of the National History Museum, Bulgarian daily Dnevnik reported.

In an interview with Mediapool, NHM director Bozhidar Dimitrov said the report by the audit office only contained a small number of violations and said he was ready to give detailed explanations.

According to the report, the museum printed a large amount of tickets several years ago. In the meantime, their value had been changed to adapt to changes in the entrance fee, but without any rules on how this was done. According to the audit office, this created opportunities for abuse. Also, there was no procedure in place for collecting box-office revenue from subsidiaries and reporting to the museum's headquarters, the audit office said.

Income from the sales of souvenirs, books, and goods on consignation, as well as from talks held by museum staff, was also not reported, the audit office said.

Part of the museum's premises are rented out for parties, weddings, receptions and other celebrations. The museum did not collect rent from all clients and receipts ranged between 500 and 17 500 leva for what was, in most cases, the same rooms, the audit office said. The museum paid for work on archaeological finds without contracts, the audit office said. The report describes one case in which the person hired had been previously banned from field work for three years.

The museum had paid 90 per cent of the total sum for the restoration of the Boyana church in advance, when the deadline for completion of the project was not met. In the case of the Zemen Monastery, the museum had paid 86 per cent in advance when it had not defined what work was expected from the contractor, the audit office said.

The Church of St John Bogoslov, which is part of the Zemen Monastery and a monument of culture that dates to the the 12th to 16th centuriesy, was not included in the museum's accounting at all, the audit office said.

Donations of movable monuments of culture were not reflected in the museum's accounting. The same applied to the Church of the 40 Martyrs in Veliko Turnovo, the audit office said.

The audit office found that accounting and control had been delegated to one person, creating opportunities for malfeasance, Dnevnik quoted from the report.

The audit office also uncovered violations of labour and social security codes, including overtime and irregular hours which had not been paid and on which no taxes or social security contribution had been paid, Dnevnik said.