<NKÚ> will not be dealing with the competition for the proposal of the National Library

Prague - The Supreme Audit Office (NKÚ) will not be dealing with the control of funds disbursement for the project of building a new National Library this year. According to the office, the audit would not serve its intended purpose. However, NKÚ does not rule out conducting such an audit in the future. This was informed to the members of the parliamentary control committee today by the chairman of the committee, Vladimír Koníček.
    It was precisely the control committee that submitted a proposal to NKÚ in mid-November last year to address the competition. The proposal was a reaction to a letter sent by the architectural studio HŠH architekti through a law firm. The studio ended up third in the competition for the construction of the new National Library building and is among the critics of the competition, who point out its irregularities.
    The state has so far allocated nearly 1.8 billion crowns for the library. For this year, it amounts to 219 million crowns. Whether the funds will be disbursed is still unclear, as it is not at all certain whether construction will proceed. On Wednesday, the National Library team, consisting of representatives from Prague and the state, was supposed to announce its decision on how to proceed with the library proposal after four months of discussions. However, it has not yet done so, as it is waiting for a decision from the Office for Protection of Competition (ÚOHS).
    The Deputy Minister of Culture and team member František Mikeš turned to ÚOHS because the lawyers advising the team did not provide a clear opinion. ÚOHS should state whether it is possible to announce a public contract based on the results of the architectural competition. The competition, announced according to the rules of the International Union of Architects, guarantees the winner the realization of their proposal, and therefore Kaplický should also win the mentioned contract - the lawyers are unsure whether this is possible under Czech law.
    Kaplický is already annoyed by the delays surrounding the construction preparation; on Wednesday he stated that his lawyers are ready to file a lawsuit against Prague in an international court. The capital city disputed his statement, stating that the competition was announced by the library, not Prague, and that in the case of construction, it will involve state funds, so the state must decide on the implementation, not Prague. However, Kaplický believes that the city of Prague is the one delaying the project.