The Prague building authorities had problems with the new building permit system

Prague – The building authorities of the Prague districts experienced issues with the newly launched digital building management system today; some officials were unable to work in it at least during the morning. This was reported by the spokespeople of the districts in response to CTK's inquiry. In the afternoon, according to reports from some municipalities, the situation improved. The information system for building authorities (ISSŘ) is connected to the Builder's Portal, through which people can now submit their applications starting today. The digitized building management is part of the new building law. MMR spokesperson Petr Waleczko told CTK today that the office is addressing minor issues that were anticipated before the system was launched.

Prague 10 spokesperson Ján Bruno Tropp informed CTK in the morning that the building authority staff could not work in the system at all because user rights could not be set. "It is said that efforts are underway to resolve the problem. Currently, only the local administrator can log into the system without issues. It is not possible to assign even basic roles to the relevant staff: building authority and concerned authority," he stated. He added that so far only one application has arrived in the system, and its attachments had to be downloaded to a computer to be opened.

Some officials in Prague 1 also faced access problems. "For now, we are working with the possibility that only those with higher privileges may have been able to connect," stated the spokesperson for the first city district, Karolína Šnejdarová. She later added that the situation improved in the afternoon following system reconfiguration. She noted that no electronic applications have reached the authority yet, but in the past two weeks, three times more conventional applications have been submitted, likely due to concerns about the launch of digitization. "Last week, approximately the same amount of new applications was delivered to the building authority on Thursday and Friday as during the entire month of April," she said.

In the morning and during the day, officials in Prague 6 were also unable to log into the system, but by 3:00 PM it was functioning. According to city hall spokesperson Marek Zeman, however, the new system complicates the work of officials because some functions that they were accustomed to are missing. "Specifically, this concerns the connection to our economic system and the file service, which worked in the previous system, thus complicating the entire process," he noted. Officials from Prague 7 also reported login issues today. "Especially in the first days, we expect that a number of technical matters and unclear questions will need to be resolved before the system fully stabilizes," said their spokesperson Martin Vokuš.

Officials from Prague 8, according to the spokesperson of the city district Martin Šalek, are evaluating the system as the worst they have experienced so far, including those with thirty years of experience. "Employees of the Prague 8 building authority have been trying since the morning to log into the live version of the system. After several attempts, one employee succeeded - the result is the finding that the live version operates just like the testing version and has access to the entire country; thus building authorities can cancel, modify submissions to each other, etc.," he stated. "The ability to modify other intentions is a flaw that we are addressing with the supplier," the MMR spokesperson informed CTK. However, according to him, the system accounts for the possibility of viewing intentions belonging to other building authorities. "This is for the purpose of mutual coordination and cooperation," Waleczko added.

Šalek added that the manual from the ministry arrived at the office by email on Friday afternoon in a form that does not contain clearly described procedures. Considering the increase in applications in recent weeks, it will take officials until the end of the year to process them. "At the same time, they should learn to work with the new digital system and proceed according to new regulations, with which they had no time to familiarize themselves," stated the spokesperson.

Negative experiences have also been reported by officials in Prague 2. "Employees of the Prague 2 building authority cannot evaluate the system positively in any way because it shows significant, critical shortcomings," stated the city hall spokesperson Andrea Zoulová. She added that addresses cannot be entered into the ISSŘ, only cadastral areas, and the system does not filter intentions in specific regions, showing results for the entire country instead. "The system probably does not even know how to identify individuals. The address of a participant in the proceedings does not automatically fill in after entry verification, as it should," added the spokesperson. According to her, not all concerned authorities are displayed to the office's staff.

According to Waleczko, MMR has established a call center for building and other authorities to assist officials with the use of the newly implemented system. The call center categorizes applicants among experts, and the ministry gradually addresses the inquiries. All authorities should have manuals available for how to work with the system. According to Waleczko, the function of the system is currently the responsibility of the supplier company and its developers.

Among the authorities, builders, and experts, the new building law and the digitization of building management raised concerns before its implementation. The contract for the implementation of part of the system was canceled multiple times, training for officials was established hastily and was incomplete, and authorities did not always receive appropriate equipment. Bartoš previously told CTK that the implementation of the new law and the digitization of building management is likely to encounter initial difficulties.