ČKA disagrees with tenders based on the lowest price

Prague - The Czech Chamber of Architects (ČKA) has called on government members not to award tenders in the field of civil engineering based on the lowest offered price. ČKA chairman Jan Vrana told reporters today that this method of awarding contracts is one of the reasons for the lack of transparency and significant corruption in the entire process. Architects also reiterated that more frequent architectural competitions would particularly help in the fight against corruption.
    "In architecture, the competition for the lowest price competes for the lowest quality," stated Vrana. According to him, bids that cannot responsibly process the contract and hire good professionals almost regularly win. "The result is poor quality territorial plans and poor quality projects for bad buildings," said the ČKA chairman. Tenders awarded based on the lowest price thus lead, according to him, to the devastation of Czech towns and municipalities.
    Ministers whom architects addressed generally do not agree with the ČKA's opinion, according to Vrana. However, the chamber intends to engage them in further discussions. Among other things, they want to convince them of the necessity for a larger number of architectural competitions. According to Vice Chairman Jan Sapák, 60 to 120 of the most important projects should be selected annually. Currently, there are only about ten to twenty.
    "We firmly believe that this would change the climate," said Sapák. According to him, a significant portion of competitors does not get to participate in tenders. Annually, decisions are made on contracts for around 1400 constructions, with about three-quarters of winners reportedly not emerging from fair competition. Some people allegedly perceive all tenders in the construction industry as manipulated.
    According to its leadership, the ČKA has a well-established opinion on what kind of contract should be considered significant enough to warrant an architectural competition. For constructions, it depends on the type, location, and amount of investment; for territorial plans, for example, on the size of the city.
    Architects previously stated that certain court buildings deserved an architectural competition, as evidenced by the case of the Justice Palace in Brno. Its construction became more than twice as expensive compared to the original plans. Similarly, according to Sapák, a competition should be announced for the planned television studio in Brno.