Praha received a fine of 11 million CZK from the ÚOHS for the Troja Bridge

Brno - Prague has been fined 11 million crowns by the Office for the Protection of Competition (ÚOHS) for the construction of the Troja Bridge, which is part of the Blanka tunnel complex. Milena Marešová from the press department of the antitrust office told ČTK this.
    The ÚOHS decision dates from mid-December of last year, and the Prague city hall has already appealed against it. "We believe that what we were fined for is not an administrative offense," said Transport Councillor Petr Dolínek (ČSSD) to ČTK.
    ÚOHS Chairman Petr Rafaj told ČTK today that the construction of the Troja Bridge was carried out in a completely different form and according to a completely different architectural design than that contained in the original tender documentation for the public contract. "The selected bidder therefore carried out construction work for the client that was not procured in a proper procurement procedure according to the public procurement law," stated Rafaj.
    The server ihned.cz reported today that the capital city hall paid 1.3 billion crowns due to additional work for the construction of the bridge. It was originally supposed to cost less than half a billion. The ÚOHS is reportedly also examining other works on the Blanka tunnel. There, too, contractors performed additional work that increased the cost of construction by many billions.
    Even the former council of the capital city led by Tomáš Hudeček (currently an independent, in the TOP 09 club) claimed that the company Metrostav was building a different bridge than was designed. Therefore, it cannot pay the invoices. For this reason, it also initiated arbitration. The arbitration court ruled that Prague must pay the requested amount to Metrostav.
    The Blanka tunnel, whose construction was commissioned by the political leadership under Mayor Pavel Bém (ODS), was supposed to be opened in 2011. The project exceeded its budget by at least six billion crowns, with the total amount reaching nearly 37 billion crowns. The arbitration court has already dealt with disputes between Prague and the construction company Metrostav, involving amounts in the billions of crowns.