LN: The completion of the NK repository in Hostivař is postponed

Prague - The completion of the warehouse for more than two million books from the unique collection of the National Library (NK) in Hostivař is postponed. The new director of the NK, Tomáš Böhm, decided that the tender documentation for the announced public procurement was of poor quality and halted the tender. This was reported by today's Lidové noviny (LN).
   "Based on an expert opinion, we concluded that the tender documentation would not allow for an objective determination of price. The prices we would receive from the bidders would not reflect reality," said Böhm to the newspaper.
    According to the library's management, the tender, which was set under the previous director Pavel Hazuka at 420 million crowns, was overestimated from the very beginning. Böhm was concerned that there could be unclaimed operations, the newspaper writes, noting that they were unable to obtain a response from Hazuka on Monday.
    The new head of the NK believes that 300 million crowns will be sufficient for the completion of the depository. However, a new public procurement announcement will delay the project by at least half a year. The delay will also complicate the planned digitization of 26 million pages of documents from the library’s cultural heritage.
    The priority project worth 300 million crowns is to be financed with European funds, but it must be completed by 2014. "The halt in the completion of the depository will not jeopardize digitization," said Stanislav Brunclík, secretary of the Minister of Culture, to today’s LN.