ÚOHS: ČSTV violated the public procurement law in 11 out of 12 cases

 BRNO - The Czech Union of Physical Education (ČSTV) violated the public procurement law several times and will pay a fine of 274,000 crowns. This was decided by the antimonopoly office, which found irregularities in 11 out of 12 inspected contracts. In most cases, ČSTV erred by transferring decision-making about the contracts to individual sports clubs, said the office's chairman Martin Pecina today to reporters. The office imposed fines only in seven cases due to the expiration of the deadline.
     According to ČSTV chairman Vladimír Srb, the union's leadership has learned its lesson. "We knew that we had made mistakes in some cases and next time we will proceed differently," Srb told ČTK, along with his colleagues, specifying some guidelines in the internal regulations for future tenders. "The units that caused the damage will pay the fine. We certainly won't pay it for them," he added.
    The antimonopoly office began inspecting the contracts for the construction of sports facilities in 2004. It selected tenders from 2002 to 2004, for which grants exceeded ten million crowns. Their total value was nearly 700 million crowns. Out of that, 12 public tenders worth 200 million crowns were then investigated. The office also looked into the reconstruction of the tennis facility of Prague's Sparta or the football field in Uherský Brod.
    In ten cases, ČSTV, as the contracting authority, unlawfully transferred decision-making powers to individual sports clubs. "The investigated public contracts were not awarded in accordance with the law," Pecina explained.
    The investigation of the office only stopped in the case of the reconstruction of the swimming stadium in Prague - Podolí for more than 35 million crowns. This contract was financed by ČSTV from its own resources, Pecina explained. However, another part of the same contract was already in violation of the law, but the deadline for imposing a fine had expired. The investigation concluded in a similar manner in three other cases.
    Other contracting authorities also made mistakes during the construction of sports facilities. The city of Uherské Hradiště violated the public procurement law when selecting a company for the construction of a sports complex and received a fine of 200,000 crowns. The Sports Clubs Zlín will pay 70,000 for three contracts that violated the law. According to the office, the Physical Education Unity Jiskra in Havlíčkův Brod also violated the law and must pay 25,000 crowns. However, the fines are not yet final, and it is possible to appeal against them.
    The mayor of Uherské Hradiště, Libor Karásek (ODS), told ČTK today that he is not officially aware of the ÚOHS decision yet. Therefore, the city of Uherské Hradiště can only comment on the entire matter after receiving the relevant decision including the reasoning behind it. "Only then will we consider, for example, whether to turn to the court. We stand behind our arguments, which we presented in the appeal," said the mayor.
    The director of Sports Clubs Zlín, Pavel Chwascz, told ČTK today that this was an administrative error. "The problem is that we did not formally justify the order of the companies in writing. However, the decision was made based on clearly defined criteria," he noted. He added that at this moment, Sports Clubs Zlín do not have any final decision concerning the imposition of a fine.