The Prague Public Transit Company will file an appeal against the decision of the Office for the Protection of Competition by the end of January

Prague - The Prague Public Transit Company (DPP) will file an appeal against the decision of the Office for the Protection of Competition (ÚOHS) to cancel the supplier selection in the tender for the second part of the construction of the metro line D by the end of January, when the relevant deadline ends. DPP director Petr Witowski stated this at today's meeting of Prague councilors. The councilors discussed the project for over two hours today. They did not approve the proposal from opposition councilor Ondřej Prokop (ANO) for the city to commission an external audit of the entire project.

The councilors discussed the project as an information paper presented by the Deputy Mayor for Transport Zdeněk Hřib (Pirates). Opposition councilors wanted to push for an external audit by anti-corruption organizations instead of the internal audit of the supplier selection, which was approved by the city council on Monday and should be commissioned to the company by the supervisory board at the end of January.

This was not approved by the councilors. "Given that this is a non-final decision of the ÚOHS, it is appropriate to first conduct an internal audit," said Hřib. He added that participants in the tender have the right to file objections against it, and the current situation is therefore not unusual. "What is happening now is not a complication but a legal process," he stated.

Witowski reiterated that the company would file an appeal against the ÚOHS decision on the supplier selection. "We will send the appeal to the ÚOHS by January 31," he said. He added that he considers the decision of the antitrust office regarding an earlier complaint by the company Metrostav DIZ to be more significant, in which the office ruled that the awarding of the contract was in order. "So far, in all cases I can remember, the ÚOHS has agreed with us in that second instance," he stated.

Last week, the office annulled the DPP's decision on the supplier selection, stating that the documentation of the winning consortium lacked evidence proving the experience of some members of the professional staff. DPP and the company Subterra do not agree with the office's decision. In contrast, the company Porr, which is part of the excluded consortium, welcomed it. The excluded consortium has filed an initiative with the office, which is also addressing additional initiatives related to the tender.

The construction of the new Prague metro line began in 2022, with a kilometer-long section under construction between the stations Pankrác and Olbrachtova. This should connect to the section from Olbrachtova to Nové Dvory, which pertains to the mentioned tender. The section from Nové Dvory to the Depo Písnice will be built last. The original completion deadline was 2029, but it will likely be postponed due to disputes.