The ÚOHS has started re-examining the competition for the National Library building

Brno/Praha - The Office for the Protection of Competition (ÚOHS) has resumed its examination of the competition for the design of a new building for the National Library in Prague based on a prompt from the Ministry of Culture. The office had previously dealt with this competition and issued a decision that it was not materially competent to review the legality of the competition as a supervisory authority. However, the ministry now does not wish to review the conducted architectural competition but wants to know whether a public contract can be awarded based on its results.
    The Office has requested all documentation from the competition organizer, namely the National Library, and has initiated a new investigation, stated office spokesman Kristián Chalupa today. The director of the National Library, Vlastimil Ježek, welcomes the ministry's prompt as he himself wants to know a clear position on whether the further steps he is preparing are in accordance with the Public Procurement Act.
    The letter from the ÚOHS was sent last week by the first deputy minister of culture, František Mikeš, who is a member of the National Library team. Since autumn, he has been dealing with whether the new National Library building according to the design by Jan Kaplický, which won the international architectural competition a year ago, will or will not stand in Prague's Letná. A verdict is expected on Wednesday.
    Ministry of Culture spokeswoman Marcela Žižková told ČTK that the Public Procurement Act is the only legal instrument that the Ministry of Culture can use in the case of managing state funds. If several billion from public funds are to be spent on building the library, there must be no doubt that could jeopardize this investment in the future, she stated.
    "If the expert legal team that prepared the materials for the working group did not reach a clear conclusion, it is a signal for the Ministry of Culture to obtain a definitive conclusion," she stated. Therefore, the ministry sent a request to the ÚOHS for a position on the "public competition for the proposal so that by eliminating doubts, space is opened for further steps in the matter."
    The ministry's request thus does not concern the architectural competition, which was held according to the rules of the International Union of Architects (UIA) and cannot be examined by the ÚOHS, but looks to the future: whether a competition for a public contract can be announced based on the results of this competition under the Public Procurement Act - this competence already belongs to the ÚOHS.
    Some Czech architects also lodged complaints with the ÚOHS regarding the National Library. The ÚOHS rejected their complaints twice, stating that the rules for international architectural competitions are established by the UIA, and the case thus falls under its jurisdiction.
    The UIA issued a statement at the end of January accepting the results of the international architectural competition for the construction of the new NK building. According to the director of the NK, Vlastimil Ježek, this final position of the UIA refutes the doubts raised about the legitimacy of the competition. The legitimacy of the international architectural competition was criticized by some architects and the Czech Chamber of Architects (ČKA). Both groups called for a review of the course of the competition by the UIA. However, the critics were not satisfied with its statement.