The government approved funding for the construction of the headquarters of the Supreme Audit Office

Prague - The government today released funds for the construction of a new headquarters for the Supreme Audit Office (NKÚ) despite the opposition of Finance Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO). Babiš reported this at a press conference after the government meeting. The cabinet released the money from the unspent expenses of the NKÚ itself.

The office has been based for several years in a rented building, and the state has not found another suitable building in its ownership. Therefore, it decided to construct a new headquarters, which is expected to cost about 600 million crowns. The parliamentary library and archive will also be located there. According to the Ministry of Finance, the investment, including the purchase price of the land, totals 773 million crowns.

Babiš has long blocked the NKÚ's request to use saved funds from previous years for the construction of the new headquarters. Today, the minister said that Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka (ČSSD) did not support him regarding the funds for the NKÚ headquarters. "I felt today that I was unnecessarily at the government. In all my proposals I was outvoted; according to the ministry officials, this is very unusual," Babiš stated.

According to Deputy Prime Minister Pavel Bělobrádek, it is realistic that another state office will move into the current NKÚ headquarters. However, the state does not own the headquarters; the building is owned by the CPI group. They recently proposed an extension of the lease to the NKÚ. NKÚ President Miloslav Kala considers it strange that the offer came at a time when the office plans to build a new headquarters.

The rental agreement for part of the building in Holešovice, Prague, was concluded by the NKÚ even before Kala took office, during which he negotiated a reduction in the annual rent from 45 million crowns to 16.7 million. The lease expires in 2023.

In the past, financing for the headquarters has also been discussed by members of parliament. The Control Committee has already twice called on the finance minister this year to present the relevant material to the government.