The court rejected the complaint of the company that questioned the tender for the concert hall in Brno

Brno - The company Gardenline has definitively failed in its attempt to challenge the tender for the construction of the Janáček Cultural Centre in Brno. Its cassation complaint was rejected by the Supreme Administrative Court (NSS), as reported by ČTK from the official bulletin. Construction of the concert hall in the center of Brno began more than a year ago, and the court dispute has no immediate impact on it.

The company Gardenline, based in Litoměřice, questioned the requirement that applicants for the contract must have completed at least one public facility construction project with investment costs exceeding one billion crowns in the past seven years. It argued that this was an unreasonable and discriminatory condition that restricts economic competition.

The Regional Court in Brno ruled in favor of Gardenline's lawsuit against the decisions of the antimonopoly office. However, its previous ruling was overturned last year by the NSS, arguing that even private administrative buildings with a public part have the character of public facilities, and thus could be applied in the tender as evidence of sufficient experience.

The Regional Court then, for the second time, concluded that the condition was easily fulfillable. "The range of projects through which suppliers could demonstrate their technical qualification was so broad that the contractual condition represented only a marginal barrier to economic competition. The NSS agrees with such an assessment," states the current ruling.

The Janáček Cultural Centre, which will have an auditorium for 1,200 people, is being built in a gap between Veselá and Besední streets. Previously, there was a parking lot, and since 2018 there have been underground garages on the site, which were created as the first phase of construction, but have not yet been usable.

The financing for the construction, which costs 2.3 billion crowns, will be contributed by the Ministry of Culture with 600 million crowns, Brněnské komunikace with 332 million crowns, and the South Moravian Region with 100 million crowns. The rest will be covered by the city from its budget.

The contract was awarded to a consortium of companies OHLA ŽS, Strabag Ground and Engineering Construction, and Unistav Construction. The construction work was delayed by the discovery of the foundations of a 13th-century town house.