ÚOHS will continue to deal with the contract for the hospital project in Zlín

Zlín - The Office for Competition Protection (ÚOHS) will continue to deal with the public tender for the project of a new regional hospital in Zlín. It had previously ruled that the competition was in order, but now ÚOHS has received an appeal against the first-instance decision. The spokesperson for the office, Martin Švanda, confirmed to ČTK the information from Czech Radio Zlín today.

"A proceeding will take place, in which the objections stated in the appeal will be assessed and whether the first-instance decision is correct and lawful," said the spokesperson to ČTK. The company JIKA-CZ from Hradec Králové filed an objection against the conditions in the procurement procedure of the competition, which has now also filed an appeal. ÚOHS should decide on the appeal within three months.

Two companies registered for the competition for the project of the new regional hospital, which according to regional councilors should cost about 350 million crowns. The construction of the hospital was approved again by the council of the Zlín Region this May. According to Governor Jiří Čunek (KDU-ČSL), it is estimated to cost around eight billion crowns.

Earlier, Čunek stated that two Czech entities had registered for the competition, one of which has ties to the Kingdom of Sweden. The head of the regional investment department, Libor Pecháček, mentioned at the May council meeting that it is a consortium of several companies, with one foreign participant always involved.

Opposition councilor Michal Dvouletý (Independent) called for the suspension of the selection process for the designer at the May meeting of the regional council. According to him, the region only provided the potential designers with the volumetric study of the new hospital in the competition, while the governor presented a substantially more developed layout study of the new hospital, the preparation of which is also part of the selection process for the designer.

The pre-project preparation was processed by the company smart healthcare solutions with managing director Martin Šamaj. "It is exactly Martin Šamaj and the people around him who are the main creators of the materials for the new hospital. It is therefore logical that it was Martin Šamaj who also played a key role in preparing the tender documentation for the selection process for the designer. Why then did he not provide potential applicants with the developed layout study?" Dvouletý stated at that time. However, Pecháček clarified that Šamaj only processed the technical materials that were part of the tender documentation, which, however, was prepared by someone else. "When someone prepares the materials, they are not disqualified from applying," Čunek stated in May.

The planned construction of the hospital is criticized by most opposition and some coalition councilors, as well as by the initiative Save Baťovka. They are striving for a referendum on the construction of the new hospital to be held simultaneously with the autumn regional elections.