Audit
The museum’s finances were previously discussed in a special hearing in the Territorial Development Committee. The Finance Inspectorate also had doubts about the financial sustainability of the money flows to the future museum for the Brussels Region.
The Brussels government wanted to conduct an audit to determine whether these concerns are justified. This audit examined the feasibility of the planned activities, the budgets for personnel and the management of commercial activities. The external audit was presented to the press on Friday.
The commercial management model of the KANAL Foundation is based on 110 full-time equivalent employees, divided into four different services. This concerns the reception service (ticketing and shop), catering, the temporary rental of spaces and the sponsorship service. According to the audit, the commercial model is “transparent, analytical and flexible”. The Foundation would not have omitted any important costs.
Just over half of this will be used within the framework of the artistic services that the museum will provide. That number, as well as the salary of the employees, is also found positive in the external audit. “The structure of the team appears to be in line with the staff structure at similar institutions,” it said. The salary scale is assessed as “coherent” by the consortium.
Number of visitors
KANAL expects 550,000 visitors per year, a number on which the number of planned exhibitions and events is also based. That forecast is considered “reasonable” in the external audit. “Based on the analysis, we confirm that the number of visitors, as well as the number of events and shows, is justified. This is based on benchmark analyses, industry experience and a previous EY report conducted in 2017,” the report said to read.
Read more below the video with Mathias Vanden Borre (N-VA), among others, who is not yet convinced by the results of the audit.
