Budweiser Budvar, N.C. is under constant supervision of its governing body as well as other government authorities

“We believe that it has been caused particularly by the lack of information available to the media,” says Budweiser Budvar’s PR manager Petr Samec.

The visit of the Deputy Minister of Agriculture related to the installation of the supervisory board’s new member is a good example of the distortion, since it was presented as an “inspection”, which even before the start of the audit itself suggested a kind of bad condition of the brewery (see the Deputy to the Minister of Agriculture’s statement in the Právo daily of 31.1. 2012: “By no means can I say that the result of the preliminary inspection was fully satisfactory.”).  Similar suggestion of the audit’s bad outcome has regrettably been continuing, despite the fact no documents have been inspected so far, therefore it is deplorable that the Ministry’s representatives do not put the record straight. The Czech media also released information that can suggest that Budweiser Budvar has not been under any supervision since 2003. “Such interpretations can very seriously damage the brewery’s good name as well as its commercial interests both home and abroad in particular. Therefore, we would like to familiarise the public with the comprehensive system of our control mechanisms,” adds Petr Samec. Another recent matter focused on by the media are the alleged drawbacks when dealing with the Budweiser trademark legal disputes. Here as well is the image created by the media incomplete. The intellectual property including the legal disputes over it have recently been analysed by a renowned law firm, which has been working as a consultant for the Ministry of Agriculture regarding the transformation of the corporation into a joint stock company. The analysis had no objections against Budweiser Budvar’s procedures in these legal disputes.

Budweiser Budvar, N.C.’s control mechanisms

• Budweiser Budvar, N.C. is in accordance with its status a completely regular business organisation in practice, which draws no means from public funds (state budget etc.) and its activities are solely funded from its own resources created by profitable economic activity for the last 20 years. As every business organisation, this corporation also has annual independent audit within its balancing of books and preparation of the annual report.
• Supervisory board meetings take place at least 4 times a year, when business results, economic results, investment activities, the results of other public administration bodies’ inspections, internal inspections results and the strategic issues for the corporation’s further development.
• Following the end of every quarter, the corporation presents its governing body (Ministry of Agriculture) with all the information regarding the business results, economic results, development of the legal disputes, human resources management, investments as well as miscellaneous financial and economic analyses fully in accordance with the Minister of Agriculture’s Directive 5/11.
• External inspections of the government authorities constantly take place in the corporation, such as of the Financial Office in České Budějovice, the customs office, the Czech Social Welfare Administration, the General Health Insurance Fund and others. In 2010, fifteen external inspections took place, while in 2011 there were 13 of them.

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