Declaration of the Czech Chamber of Architects on the Awarding of Public Contracts

The General Assembly of the Czech Chamber of Architects, after a discussion dedicated to this topic and in accordance with its mission to care for the building culture and the culture of shaping the environment and to cooperate in the protection of public interests in the field of construction, architecture, and urban planning¹, issues regarding the current state of public investment

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STATEMENT OF THE CZECH CHAMBER OF ARCHITECTS ON PUBLIC PROCUREMENT

The method of public procurement in the Czech Republic, including their concession awarding (so-called PPP), is often in fundamental contradiction with the general goal and mission set out in § 6 of Act No. 137/2006 Coll., on public procurement, as amended, particularly with the principles of transparency, public controllability, cost-effectiveness, and economical handling of entrusted property and financial resources. We consider these requirements to be current precisely because public funds are currently significantly lacking and their wasting hinders the realization of important investments.

The corrupt environment in public procurement not only causes significant economic damage but also moral harm, lowering the threshold of societal and individual civic sensitivity to illegalities and immoralities and weakening legal awareness before it could be restored after decades of devastation.

With this statement, we address not only the contracting authorities but also the public, which must realize its right to transparency, to an effective evaluation of its, therefore public funds, its right to the quality of buildings and the constructed environment. The public must feel that through dialogue, they participate in the construction of their municipality or state and that they are not merely vassals of those to whom they have given a mandate to decide on the awarding of public contracts.

For the profession of urban planners and architects, as well as engineers, the consequences of this situation are particularly burdensome, especially for the upcoming generations. The awarding of contracts for urban planning documentation, as well as for building projects and construction works, is one of the engines of the economy and also one of the most extensive segments of public investment. Precisely for this reason, corrupt practices manifest themselves particularly broadly here, and the leakage of public funds represents a real societal problem that takes this society back decades.

The seriousness of the situation is felt by many foreign partners, with whom we encounter rejecting and critical opinions during bilateral discussions as well as at meetings in international professional institutions.

We also address architects with our statement. It cannot be excused by crises or other surrogate reasons that architects themselves are failing and contributing to the state of affairs. The ethical failures of architects, although often "enforced" by external circumstances, deepen this unsustainable state and have marked the relationship to the moral and ethical principles of our profession.

The current state is a result of many causes, among which a significant role is played by ignorance on one side, and an intent to circumvent proper procurement rules on the other. The consequence is overpriced and lower quality buildings.

By quality, the Czech Chamber of Architects understands not only aesthetic quality but also technical, material, functional, and user quality, of which an integral part includes requirements for economy, not only related to the procurement of plans and the constructions themselves but especially to their subsequent operation.


The only truly suitable form of public procurement for urban planning documentation, projects for public buildings and spaces is considered by the Czech Chamber of Architects to be architectural and urban competitions, which are, by their nature, competitions in every respect public, controllable - transparent. The Chamber considers the concession procurement system to be a controversial form of public procurement, which very often leads to investments that fall outside of public administration control and lead to latent to open indebtedness of municipalities and regions. An architectural competition, as a form of design competition according to Act No. 137/2006 Coll., on public procurement, as amended, announced while respecting other applicable laws, particularly Act No. 360/1992 Coll., is a valid and purpose-built part of the legislative system and cannot be circumvented any longer.

The Czech Chamber of Architects hereby calls on the widest society to exercise its right to a quality and effective use of public resources and to demand from public administration a thorough justification where a public contract affecting the state of the built environment is awarded otherwise than through an architectural competition.

The Czech Chamber of Architects demands that public administration chooses forms of public procurement that allow for the highest degree of public control, not only over the offered price but primarily over the quality of submitted proposals. If an architectural competition is not used, there is reasonable suspicion that it is about preparing conditions for awarding the contract to a predetermined supplier and for corruption.

Adopted as a resolution of the XVII. General Assembly of the Czech Chamber of Architects 2010.

In Pardubice, April 17, 2010

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