According to the ÚOHS, the competition for the National Library was in order

Prague - The architectural competition for the new building of the National Library announced according to the rules of the International Union of Architects was in order. This follows from a letter sent last week by the Office for the Protection of Competition (ÚOHS) to the Ministry of Culture. The National Library used an exemption from the public procurement law, and the antimonopoly office has no objections to that, said the head of the office, Martin Pecina, to ČTK today. However, doubts remain regarding the appearance of the project documentation preparation.
    The ÚOHS was responding to a request from the first deputy minister of culture, František Mikeš. Pecina emphasized that the new response to the ministry is the same as previous verdicts of the office in this matter. "From the beginning, we have been consistent,” he added.
    The studio Future Systems led by Jan Kaplický won the competition with its study. However, Pecina pointed out the issue that a public procurement must be announced for the project documentation, and it cannot be directly assigned to the author of the winning proposal.
    The director of the National Library, Vlastimil Ježek, has a different opinion; according to him, it is possible to assign the project to Kaplický, as it follows from the public procurement law.
    Future Systems is the sole owner of the copyright, and if anyone else were to participate in the project, they would at least need his consent, Ježek told ČTK. However, Pecina contends that if the project were to be executed by Kaplický's studio, the contract would still be awarded to some Czech design firm, and "public funds would be lost along the way," he added.
    According to Ježek, a barrier to assigning the project is that the National Library does not have a signed contract for the sale of the land for the library building in Letná.
    The antimonopoly office may ask about the architectural competition in Brussels. However, the response would not come in weeks but rather in months, Pecina believes. If the library itself has doubts about the competition, it can cancel it itself, as it is not bound by the conditions set by Czech law for this step, he added.