NSS definitively confirmed a fine of 11 million for Prague for the Troja Bridge

Prague - The Supreme Administrative Court (NSS) has definitively confirmed a fine of 11 million crowns imposed on Prague by the Office for the Protection of Competition (ÚOHS) in 2017. The fine was levied against the capital city for errors in the public procurement for the construction of the Troja Bridge, which is part of the Blanka tunnel complex. The NSS decision, which dismissed Prague's cassation complaint, is available on the court's official bulletin board. The fine had previously been confirmed by a ruling from the Regional Court in Brno, which was the subject of the cassation complaint.

"The construction of the Troja Bridge is a historical remnant of the city; it began and was completed under several different political administrations. We had to pay the fine based on the ÚOHS decision back in 2017. However, we have tried to mitigate the amount of the fine with our objections. Now, we have practically exhausted all legal remedies, yet we will consider further steps," said the spokesperson for the Prague City Hall, Vít Hofman.

According to the office, Prague enlarged the original procurement for construction work involving the building of a new Troja Bridge without using any form of tendering process required by law. This excluded competition among firms. The then-chairman of the antitrust office, Petr Rafaj, indicated in March 2017 that a completely different bridge had been built, which did not correspond visually or financially to the original design. The original price was supposed to be around 500 million crowns, while the new one cost nearly a billion more.

Prague had to pay the fine at the moment when the ÚOHS decision was confirmed by the then-chairman Rafaj based on the appeal submitted. Filing a lawsuit with the Brno Regional Court did not postpone the obligation to pay the fine.

The city council under Tomáš Hudeček (currently an independent, in the TOP 09 club) had already claimed that the company Metrostav was building a different bridge than had been designed, and therefore could not pay its invoices. For this reason, the capital city also initiated arbitration. The arbitration court decided that Prague had to pay the amount requested by Metrostav.

The Blanka Tunnel, the construction of which was commissioned by the political administration led by Mayor Pavel Bém (ODS), was originally supposed to open in 2011. The project has exceeded costs by at least six billion crowns. The arbitration court has already dealt with disputes between Prague and the construction company Metrostav. These involved billion-crown sums.