The construction center project in Plasy will be led by a new manager

Plasy (Plzeň Region) - The Ministry of Culture will appoint a new chief manager for the project team that is to implement the Heritage Construction Center project in the former brewery and the economic part of the local monastery in Plasy, northern Plzeň. The project, valued at 392 million crowns, is being realized thanks to a majority grant from the Integrated Operational Program (IOP) by the National Technical Museum (NTM). Despite issues that projects nationwide are facing with the IOP, the Plasy project is not financially endangered, Culture Minister Jiří Besser (TOP 09) told reporters today.
   The Integrated Operational Programs, which supported approximately 16 projects in the Czech Republic with a total volume of around seven billion in the first call, are reportedly struggling with problems, according to the minister. Individual projects are undergoing audits, and Besser estimates that up to a third of them are threatened by the approach of the implementation teams. “Nationwide, the situation is not rosy; fortunately, it is still at a stage where mistakes and uncertainties are still correctable and reversible,” he stated. If any project is endangered, it will be due to the inaction of the applicant, not from the ministry or its contribution organizations, he assured.
   To improve the situation, radical changes have been introduced. According to the minister, experienced manager Marek Kupsa has taken over as the head of the department of strategy and subsidy policy at the ministry, who had individual project reports prepared within the first three weeks. It appears that some project teams will change, as they are not functioning adequately.
   In Plasy, approximately 7.5 million crowns have been invested in the year since the project started. A valid building permit for the brewery has so far been obtained, and the project documentation for the brewery for construction proceedings and implementation has been completed. The economic courtyard is only surveyed, the minister enumerated. According to him, risks include slow implementation of the preparatory phase, unprocessed project documentation, and the unissued building permit for the economic courtyard, unexecuted tender procedure for the brewery construction, and likely archaeological finds in the economic courtyard.
   Former NTM director Horymír Kubíček, whom Besser dismissed from his position, had promised a year ago that work would begin this summer. His then deputy Oldřich Rambousek was the main manager of the team in Plasy until now. The center is to offer historical building elements, structures, materials, and craft tools to visitors by 2014. The spaces of the renovated buildings, which according to the project will literally be a textbook of various construction styles and opinions due to conversions, will be enlivened by interesting exhibitions. They will be intended primarily for researchers but also for ordinary visitors.
   Besser remarked that according to the valid methodology, projects supported by the IOP have up to a year to obtain a building permit. “That is a completely unnecessary waste of time that significantly delays us. We went into this unprepared. We will find out in a year whether we even receive the building permit,” he noted. In many cases, according to him, the building permit should already be obtained at the moment when the project is decided upon.
   Other changes that the ministry is preparing concerning the IOP aim to help speed up project administration, a new methodology for planning will be developed, adjustments in the procedure for public procurement will be made, increased control is planned, and changes to financial phases are expected to better correspond to the reality of specific constructions.
   The project in Plasy will save significantly devastated Romanesque-Baroque economic courtyard. In addition to the brewery with the brewer's house, the Baroque monastery mill will also be utilized. A conference space and a specialized library will also be created. The brewery will serve as a museum, a meeting place, and a depository. The upper part, i.e., the economic courtyard, will be used for experimental workshops, seminars, and lectures.