The architectural competition for the construction of SEFO will not be completed by the beginning of April

Olomouc - The architectural competition for the construction of the Central European Forum in Olomouc (SEFO) for 600 million crowns, requested by Minister of Culture Antonín Staněk (ČSSD), will not be announced in the originally planned timeframe at the beginning of April. The reason is its legal complexity and the issue of settling legal obligations that the museum has towards the author of the original design from 2009, Jan Šépka. This was stated today by the museum spokesperson Tomáš Kasal.

According to Šépka, this is a completely non-standard situation. The solution, according to him, is not to announce the competition, which is also not recommended by experts.

According to museum representatives, the competition was supposed to be prepared by the beginning of April. "The deadline will have to be postponed. The issue of announcing the architectural competition is quite complex. We will try to announce it as soon as possible, but at this moment I am not able to say when that will be," the museum spokesperson stated.

The legal obligations arise for the museum due to a ten-year-old project by architect Jan Šépka, which the Museum of Art has still counted on implementing.

According to representatives of the Czech Chamber of Architects (ČKA), which organizes architectural competitions by law, if the competition were to be announced, the museum would have to settle the rights of the original contractor. Otherwise, the contract could not be taken over by an authorized architect, stated ČKA chairman Ivan Plicka in a letter to the museum. He pointed out that in the case of announcing a new competition, the ČKA would consider Šépka's participation unrealistic. "Architect Šépka has been working on the SEFO project for ten years and would be unfairly advantaged over other participants in the tender process," Plicka stated.

Šépka confirmed today that if the competition were announced and he were excluded, he would turn to the court. "This is because I would be discriminated against, and I would not be able to participate in such a competition," Šépka told ČTK today. "The situation can be resolved by the minister starting to listen to experts. He should back down from his demand to announce the architectural competition," he added.

The architect also wondered why the ministry insists on the competition when there has been a study for ten years, a signed contract stemming from the victory of a commercial competition, the project has been approved by heritage authorities, and there is a modification of the regulatory plan.

The Minister of Culture argues for political responsibility and transparency of the project. The ministry also claims that the museum has repeatedly violated the public procurement law in the past while searching for the design of SEFO. The museum management rejected this.

Next steps in the current deadlock situation, in which museum representatives have also called for the Minister of Culture's resignation, should come from Staněk’s meeting with the Olomouc governor Ladislav Okleštěk (ANO), who wants to act as a mediator in the matter. They are scheduled to meet this afternoon in the Chamber of Deputies.