<div>I druhý posudek ukázal, že oprava lázní v Liberci je předražená</div>

Liberec - The controversial contract for the reconstruction of the historic spa in Liberec for nearly 300 million crowns excluding VAT is, according to the second assessment, overpriced by tens of millions. Liberec faces a reduction in European funding of more than 50 million crowns. This was stated today by Eva Jouklová, spokesperson for the Regional Council of the Cohesion Region Northeast. The city hall intends to contest the reduction of funding.
    "The second analysis showed an overpricing of the contract by 15 to 20 percent," Jouklová stated.
    The regional council ordered the second assessment because the first pointed to significant overpricing, which the Liberec city hall disagreed with. The first expert stated that with a properly conducted selection process, the price should not exceed 278 million crowns, and in a competition focused on "achieving a reasonably economical price", it would not surpass 250 million crowns. According to the auditors, there was an influence in the documents aimed at achieving the maximum possible price.
    The Liberec city hall can dispute the second assessment as well. "Objections can be submitted by the end of October. We will issue a final opinion by the end of November," Jouklová added.
    The Liberec city hall intends to contest the reduction of funding. "We are just getting acquainted with the assessment, but we will certainly appeal against its conclusions," said Deputy Mayor Lukáš Martin (ČSSD) to ČTK today.
    The reconstruction of the spa, along with the extension of the swimming pool, belongs to the controversial contracts that led to the collapse of the Liberec city council coalition led by Změna pro Liberec last spring. Both projects were prepared by the previous city hall management led by ODS and a competition was announced for suppliers. The newly elected representation headed by Jan Korytář (Změna pro Liberec) then evaluated the contracts at the beginning of last year and announced the winner, but Korytář ultimately refused to sign the contracts. He argued with two legal assessments and a report from the anti-corruption organization Transparency International, which stated that the contracts were disadvantageous for the city. Nonetheless, the new city leadership eventually signed contracts with the winners. Both contracts were already investigated by the antimonopoly office last year, but no wrongdoing was found. The regional council had an audit conducted for the swimming pool this year as well, but no errors were found during the inspection. The reconstruction of the spa is being carried out by the company Chládek and Tintěra.