The police will investigate the competition for the new National Library

Prague - The police will investigate the competition for the design of the new National Library (NK) building, which led to the dismissal of its director, Vlastimil Ježek. The state prosecutor's office handed over a criminal complaint to the police on Monday, filed by a group of five individuals. The investigation into the suspicion of committing a crime of fraud in a public competition, which, according to the criminal complaint, might have been committed by the NK management, will be handled by the economic crime department, stated district prosecutor for Prague 1, Šárka Pokorná.
    The criminal complaint was filed by five architects, but they did so as citizens, not as architects. None of them participated in the competition and they are not part of any other group of architects pointing to the alleged irregularity of the competition. Like other critics of the competition, the authors of the complaint are bothered by the fact that the winning project did not meet the requirement of the assignment, namely the placement of the national conservation fund above ground. The NK management counters that they could not envision the safe storage of books underground before announcing the competition, and the author of the winning design, Jan Kaplický, proposed a revolutionary solution.
    “It is not against the library, the competition, or the winning design. We want things to work as they should,” said one of the authors of the criminal complaint, Ján Stempel, to ČTK. The others are architects Ludvík Grym, Petr Pištěk, Pavel Rada, and Jan Sapák.
    A lawsuit regarding the library competition has already been in court since last autumn. It was filed by the studio HŠH architects, who finished in third place in the competition. However, no hearing has been scheduled yet. The studio filed a lawsuit for damages - if Kaplický had not won, HŠH, who finished third, could theoretically have moved up to second place, and their reward could thus have been higher.
    HŠH architects have stated since the announcement of the competition results that it was irregular. They have contacted the Office for the Protection of Economic Competition (ÚOHS) several times, which has repeatedly stated that it cannot assess the design competition; it can only do so in cases of competitions announced according to the public procurement law. According to Tomáš Hradečný from the HŠH studio, however, the competition was announced in accordance with the law. An architectural competition is one type of design competition under the public procurement law, he told ČTK. According to him, NK fell out of compliance with the law only after the rules of the competition were changed during its course.
    ÚOHS had previously confirmed to the library that it could apply for an exemption from this law, meaning it did not have to announce the competition in accordance with it. Now, with the knowledge of the European Commission's position, however, the head of the office, Martin Pecina, states that he made a mistake in that decision and that the exemption could not be applied. According to him, the competition should be annulled. However, Ježek did not want to annul the competition, stating it was announced according to the rules of the International Union of Architects, which take precedence over Czech laws.
    A criminal complaint was also filed against Ježek and Minister of Culture Václav Jehlička by Jiří Jehlička, operator of the Central Register of Debtors (CERD) website and an anti-corruption hotline, who has previously filed several criminal complaints against politicians. He believes that Ježek may have committed the crime of breaching obligations in the management of another's property by spending money on a competition that Minister Jehlička deemed illegal.
    The future of the new building has been at a standstill for months. The problems are attributed to land issues, a lack of funds, and complications with the competition. Shortly before his dismissal, Ježek came up with a new plot of land, but did not disclose its location. The site is also favored by the new NK director Pavel Hazuk, who is also a supporter of Kaplický's design.