<Příbram> due to objections will announce a new tender for the reconstruction of the aquapark

Příbram - The leadership of Příbram has decided to terminate the tender for the reconstruction of the aquapark and announce it again. The reason is the objections from one of the potential suppliers; the city wants to avoid any lengthy disputes. The competition will be repeated in a shortened procedure. The construction supplier will be known by the end of the year, and the reconstruction is expected to start next spring, the city hall spokesperson Eva Švehlová informed the CTK today. The preparation of the project has already faced complications earlier, and the city has extended the deadline for submitting bids multiple times. The opposition has long criticized the city's approach, claiming that the project preparation is slow. The city hall defends itself by stating that it faced numerous inquiries from suppliers, and rising construction costs also contributed to the problems.

One of the suppliers submitted objections within the statutory deadline against the client's omission, relating to the electrical part of the itemized budget. The city subjected the objections to substantive and legal analysis, based on which it decided to comply with them. After the expiration of the statutory fifteen-day period, the tender will be announced again under similar conditions. The new deadline for bid submission will be at the lower limit, around 40 days. The contract should take into account all approximately 300 inquiries that the city hall responded to in the previous process.

"We considered completely rejecting the objections; we discussed this option at length with the lawyers. We want to take the correct and transparent path and avoid lengthy disputes. We will repeat the tender in a shortened procedure and give suppliers the opportunity to submit bids again. We are monitoring prices in the market for construction commodities and services, which are starting to slowly decrease, so it is possible that by repeating the tender, we will achieve lower bid prices," stated Mayor Jan Konvalinka (for ANO).

If everything goes without objections from the companies and there is no need to address further inquiries, the expected deadline for submitting bids in the repeated tender is by the end of November. The selection process is two-stage. In the first round, the committee examines the qualification prerequisites of the suppliers, and in the second round, the bid price.

Příbram has been preparing this project for several years, with discussions starting in 2016. According to the latest information, the price should not exceed 350 million crowns excluding VAT. Last fall, the city hall stated that it wanted to select the contractor in spring and begin construction in summer. However, that was not accomplished.

The opposition criticizes the project preparation; according to opposition councilor Václav Švenda from TOP 09, the leadership first fumbled for a year and a half and then lost its courage. The new aquapark should have long been in operation, according to him. According to Konvalinka, the city hall faced a significant number of inquiries from potential suppliers, which it had to respond to. At the same time, it tried to prepare the contract as well as possible.

The city stopped preparing the reconstruction work in May 2020 in the most extensive variant. According to Konvalinka, the project became too inflated and the cost would exceed half a billion crowns. Therefore, the councilors decided to reduce the maximum price, which was later adjusted again due to the changes in construction costs.