Metrostav did not reach an agreement with Prague on the completion of the Blanka tunnel

Prague - The company Metrostav has not reached an agreement with the Prague City Hall regarding the issues associated with the construction of the Blanka tunnel. The firm will refer the case to an arbitration court, where it seeks reimbursement for invoices totaling approximately 2.1 billion crowns. František Polák, a spokesman for Metrostav, stated this to ČTK today. The city’s response is being sought by ČTK.
    "Unfortunately, an agreement was not reached, and therefore both parties agreed that Metrostav would submit a claim for the reimbursement of invoiced work to the arbitration court, in an expedited procedure," said Polák. He noted that negotiations with the city management continue with the aim of finding mutually acceptable solutions.
    Problems with the reimbursement of invoices for additional work emerged several months ago, and Prague's debt has gradually climbed to over 2.1 billion crowns. Therefore, last Wednesday, Metrostav announced that it would suspend construction on December 7. The city management then responded by stating that the contract with the company has been invalid from the start. The city claims to have the funds for the construction but does not know how to legally disburse them. According to Polák, Prague would therefore like to expand the subject of the dispute to include the assessment of the validity of the contract between the city and the firm.
    It remains unclear whether the company will actually suspend construction of the tunnel next Saturday.
    Prague justifies the invalidity of the contract by stating that it was not part of the council's resolution and was not discussed by the city council either. The contracts were signed during the era of former mayor Pavel Bém (ODS). The construction of the Troja Bridge, which is part of the complex of buildings, is also problematic. Allegedly, there is no proper contract for the bridge. Additionally, the original cost of half a billion has risen to an estimated 1.2 billion crowns.
    The construction is fraught with other problems as well. According to a report from the City Hall's control department, for example, the amounts in the list of documents for individual constructions submitted by the accounting department do not match the amounts recorded by the urban investor department. The discrepancy in amounts for the construction part is up to 400 million. "Due to the mentioned discrepancies, the accounting may appear incorrect, incomplete, unverifiable, unclear, and confusing," states the document from the control activities department, which is available to ČTK.
    The Blanka tunnel was originally supposed to be opened in 2011, but the deadline has been pushed to spring 2014. The estimated cost of construction and technology was supposed to be around 26 billion crowns, but now there are talks of an increase of more than ten billion. Prague estimates the annual costs of halting and preserving the construction at 1.6 billion crowns.