The Prague Motol Hospital has lost a promised donation of 500 million Czech crowns (approximately $22 million) from the Kellner Family Foundation due to an emerging corruption scandal. The funds, pledged two years ago, were earmarked for the construction of a state-of-the-art oncology center that would have revolutionized cancer treatment in the Czech Republic.
“Given the uncertainty surrounding the future direction of the Motol Oncology Center project, which was to include a separate Scientific and Diagnostic Oncology Center supported by The Kellner Family Foundation, the foundation has decided to terminate the existing donation agreement with Motol Hospital signed on April 5, 2023,” explained Michal Kříž, spokesperson for the Kellner Family Foundation.
The foundation has indicated it remains open to reviving support for the project should the current corruption scandal be resolved favorably. The Czech Ministry of Health, which had committed an additional 240 million crowns for equipment and interior furnishings, stated it understands the foundation’s decision. Ministry spokesperson Ondřej Jakob confirmed that discussions are ongoing about potential future collaboration.
The oncology center, with a total projected cost of 4.5 billion crowns, has become embroiled in a wide-ranging corruption investigation. Earlier this week, Motol Hospital Director Miloslav Ludvík and his deputy Pavel Budinský were detained and subsequently charged with alleged bribery, subsidy fraud, and damaging the EU’s financial interests.
The original agreement between hospital management, the government, the Ministry of Health, and Renáta Kellnerová, chairwoman of the Kellner Family Foundation’s board of trustees, stipulated that the research center would be named after the late Petr Kellner. “Finding new-generation treatments for certain types of cancer was Petr’s passion, to which he devoted so much,” Kellnerová had stated at the time of the donation announcement.
Of the pledged amount, 300 million crowns were allocated for constructing the research institute, with the remaining 200 million designated to support research and scientific activities once the center was operational. The facility, which was scheduled for completion in 2026, would have enabled newly developed cancer drugs to be further tested in clinical trials with Czech patients.