<html> <head> <title>Translation</title> </head> <body> <p>Hedgehog: The cancellation of the competition for the NK could lead to arbitration.</p> </body> </html>

Source
Markéta Horešovská
Publisher
ČTK
26.08.2008 18:50
Czech Republic

Prague

Prague - The Director of the National Library (NK) Vlastimil Ježek will not cancel the competition for a new building, as recommended by the Office for the Protection of Competition. In a letter to the Minister of Culture, which ČTK has at its disposal, he stated that canceling the competition could lead to an arbitration dispute with its winner, or possibly with other participants. According to him, it could cost the Czech Republic more than a billion crowns.
    The danger of international arbitration is currently a greater concern than ever - the threat of paying approximately nine billion crowns for a lost arbitration case with Diag Human hangs over the Czech Republic.
    Today, Ježek also sent a letter to the Ombudsman, from whose office he hopes to investigate the positions of all interested parties. Ježek criticizes mainly the municipal authority for failing to fulfill its promise regarding the sale of the land.
    In the letter that Ježek sent to the ministry on Monday, the correspondence between these two institutions, the antimonopoly office, and the European Commission continues. At the end of last week, Minister of Culture Václav Jehlička wrote to Ježek, pointing out the mistakes he believes Ježek made during the preparation of the new library building. He had the opinion of the Office for the Protection of Competition (ÚOHS) at his disposal - according to it, the competition for the library was illegal.
    Ježek opposes the head of ÚOHS, Martin Pecina, arguing that the antimonopoly office reached such an opinion based solely on two partially conflicting legal opinions - the opinion of the Law Faculty of Charles University and the European Commission, which Pecina primarily refers to. However, the EC did not evaluate the procedure as illegal and did not address the competition at all.
    ÚOHS states that even though it has evidence indicating the illegality of the competition, it cannot initiate proceedings for a violation of the law. Ježek finds this equivalent to "if a judge said that he would not convict that man because he cannot, but that he still knows that he killed that old lady."
    The subject of the dispute is whether Ježek could award the competition without respecting the public procurement law. The NK announced the design competition according to the rules of the International Union of Architects (UIA) and attempted to apply an exception to the aforementioned law. The ÚOHS had previously approved this, but now states that it should not have recognized the exception.
    The European Union directive, which is also reflected in Czech law, states that the public procurement law does not need to apply to competitions announced according to the special procedure of an international organization. In the case of the library, this was the UIA. However, Pecina argues that the directive applies to cases where the international organization also finances the contract - which is not the case for the library.
    The fact that the library could have applied the exception from the law is now substantiated by the opinion of the Gordion company, which deals with public procurement issues. It again refers to the fact that the contracting authority followed the rules of the international organization and was not obliged to know the relevant European directive. Moreover, it does not directly imply an obligation to finance the contract from the funds of the international organization. According to the legal analysis of the Gordion company, the NK did not violate the law.
    The Ministry of Culture also wanted to know from the ÚOHS whether a selection procedure could be announced for the project based on the winning proposal. The antimonopoly office says no, while Gordion states yes. According to the law, this is allegedly possible if it is proven that the subject of the public contract can only be realized by one supplier due to the specificity of the contract or special circumstances under which it is awarded.
    Ježek writes to the minister that he believes their common goal is to find a way to continue with the implementation of Kaplický's building. However, the minister's last public appearance was the opposite. The library also faces other problems - a lawsuit and a criminal complaint have been filed for alleged non-compliance with the competition conditions.
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