On the concept of public collections in the light of the interpretative handbook of the Ministry of the Interior
Abstract
Act No. 117/2001 Coll., On Public Collections and on the Amendment of Certain Acts, as amended, defines a public collection as "the acquisition and collection of voluntary monetary contributions from a non-predetermined circle of contributors for a predetermined public benefit purpose". The Interpretative Manual to this Act issued by the Ministry of the Interior in 2019 refers to a "non-predetermined circle of contributors" as any circle of persons, albeit specifically designated, on the grounds that "it is never possible to determine in advance who will contribute to the collection and who will not", therefore the circle of contributors is always non-predetermined.
This interpretation of the Ministry of the Interior can have a major impact on obtaining funds for public benefit purposes, and since the authors believe that this interpretation is incorrect, this article focuses in more detail on the interpretation of the term " non-predetermined circle of contributors".