The councilors of the Zlín Region canceled the contract for the hospital designer

Zlín – The councilors of the Zlín Region today canceled the public contract for the designer of the regional hospital in Zlín-Malenovice. Jan Vandík from the governor's office department informed ČTK in a press release. The new hospital was advocated by former governor Jiří Čunek (KDU-ČSL), but the new leadership of the region had previously criticized the project and instructed the regional office to prepare material for canceling the tender. Governor Radim Holiš (ANO) stated that the investment plan for the new regional hospital will be discussed further.

"By canceling this public contract, we will save financial resources for design work amounting to 350 million crowns excluding VAT, which we can use for other necessary projects and investments in our four existing hospitals in Zlín, Uherské Hradiště, Kroměříž, and Vsetín. We will continue to discuss the investment plan for the new regional hospital," said Holiš. "The decision to cancel the contract for the designer was made after considering all circumstances and with the agreement of the Zlín Region Council. We will provide detailed information on this matter at the press conference on Thursday," the governor added.

In the previous electoral period, councilors approved the construction of the new hospital, the region purchased land for it and prepared a contract with the winner of the public tender for the designer, which, however, Čunek did not sign. The new leadership of the region had already indicated after the elections that they wanted to cancel the tender.

Holiš told ČTK today that the competition for the designer is already a closed matter for the region with today’s council decision, and its cancellation should not cost the region anything. According to him, the investment plan will likely be discussed for several months; the regional leadership needs to obtain materials, for example, regarding obligations arising from land contracts. At the council meeting, which will take place in a week and has the investment plan for the new hospital on the agenda, the regional leadership will only inform about the matter, and no decision on the cancellation of the plan will be made yet.

The previous regional councilors selected the "New Hospital - Zlín" association as the winner of the contract for the designer, which had two applicants, with a bid price of 351 million crowns excluding VAT. The former chairman of the Office for the Protection of Competition (ÚOHS), Petr Rafaj, rejected a complaint at the end of October last year that contested the designer selection process. The antimonopoly office had previously ruled that the competition was in order. The company JIKA-CZ filed objections against the conditions in the tender documentation and later also submitted a complaint and subsequently a lawsuit against the decision of the antimonopoly office. According to Jiří Slánský, the managing director of JIKA-CZ, those who were supposed to prepare the tender conditions for this competition won the tender. The chairman of ÚOHS, Petr Mlsna, had previously denied any wrongdoing by the office.

Holiš had previously stated that he is in favor of the completion and reconstruction of the current Zlín hospital complex, which is the option that Čunek rejected. According to Čunek, the new hospital was to cost eight billion crowns. However, representatives of the ANO movement, which was in coalition with the People's Party in the last electoral period, and some representatives of the coalition ODS were also against the construction, whereas some opposition councilors voted in favor of the project at that time. The new hospital was a main topic in the regional elections, and representatives of the new coalition of the winning ANO movement, Pirates, ODS, and ČSSD agreed in their opposition to it.