Key facts
The Pro Helvetia (PH) foundation is the Swiss Arts Council. Its mission is to promote contemporary, professional art and culture of national interest. In 2024, the Swiss Federal Audit Office (SFAO) conducted a risk management audit. This yielded a key recommendation that PH put an effective risk management process in place that is sufficiently formalised and tailored to the foundation’s size and activities.
The SFAO carried out a follow-up audit on the implementation of this key recommendation.
180,5
million francs allocated to PH by Parliament for 2025-28
39
million francs committed by PH for cultural activities in 2025
116
Number of PH employees in Switzerland and abroad
7235
Number of requests received by PH in 2025
Main conclusions
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Formalised regulatory framework
With the assistance of an external expert, PH drew up a risk management policy and directive. The policy outlines the main elements of the risk management system and refers to the directive for the process.
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Organisation, roles and responsibilities defined
However, the effectiveness of these structures remains to be confirmed. After six to nine months of operation, it is still too early to pronounce on the effectiveness of risk management.
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Rules for using the management tool to be specified
PH uses Excel for risk management This software presents numerous challenges with regard to guaranteeing the traceability of information, managing the history or managing access rights.
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First annual report on risk management planned for September 2026
PH identified 12 risks. The evaluation of the defined and potential risk mitigation measures is under way. PH agreed with the FDHA that the first risk management report would be produced by autumn 2026.
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Annual process to be defined
The tasks to be performed as part of an annual risk management cycle have not yet been incorporated into a process.
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Recommendation not implemented
While some progress has been made, the goal set by the Federal Council, namely “to have an effective and sufficiently formalised risk management system tailored to the size and activities of PH”, has not yet been achieved.