E15: The highest building authority will temporarily be established as part of the Ministry of Regional Development (MMR)

Prague – The highest construction office, which is to be established according to the new construction law, will be temporarily created as part of the Ministry for Local Development (MMR). The compromise was negotiated by the minister for local development in resignation, Klára Dostálová (for ANO), with representatives of the upcoming government coalition. The office cannot be established due to the future government's plan to enter the new year with a budgetary provisional arrangement. This was reported today by the newspaper E15.

"Fortunately, the future coalition has backed down from the demand for a complete postponement of the effectiveness of the new construction law. They want to maintain the Highest Construction Office and the Special Construction Office for reserved buildings," said Dostálová. "With a simple amendment, they want to shift the effectiveness of the establishment of state construction offices only to the regional level," she added. However, according to her, it is a question of whether the new Chamber of Deputies will be able to approve the amendment in time. The maintenance of the Highest Construction Office was confirmed by the probable future Deputy Prime Minister Marian Jurečka (KDU-ČSL).

The budgetary provisional arrangement is planned by the upcoming government because it wants to revise the budget submitted by the outgoing government of Andrej Babiš (ANO). "When you have a budgetary provisional arrangement, you cannot establish a new institution with new demands on the state budget. You cannot hire new people or give them salaries," stated Jurečka. Therefore, Dostálová plans to establish the Highest Construction Office as an organizational unit under MMR. This way, the office will be able to draw directly from the budget of the department, which will correspond to this year's budget.

The Highest Construction Office, with 400 employees, is to be a state institution overseeing the new regional construction offices in a similar model as the Financial Administration. According to the law, construction offices are gradually to transition to the state, with about half of them expected to cease entirely, along with thousands of current employees. However, the new government does not favor such a model. "We are concerned about state construction offices at the regional level. They integrate many other bodies of state administration and generate an unacceptably massive bureaucratic structure," said the probable future Minister of Transport Martin Kupka (ODS).

According to Babiš's government, the new construction law is supposed to speed up construction proceedings and ensure compliance with set deadlines. However, opponents of the law argue that state administration will become distant from citizens and that construction proceedings will become more complicated. The law is set to come into effect in mid-2023, with some changes expected to start taking effect from the beginning of next year. The Association of Regions and the Association of Local Governments have called for the postponement of the effectiveness of the new construction law.