The state did not offer the Court of Auditors any of its buildings for its new headquarters

Prague - The new headquarters of the Supreme Audit Office will apparently not be located in a building owned by the state. Therefore, the office is considering constructing or purchasing a headquarters as well as renting space. "The Government Relocation Commission informs us that it has no option to provide us with any building," said Miloslav Kala, the office's vice president, at today’s meeting with journalists. The office has been searching for a new headquarters for some time; it is currently located in a rented building in Prague, and the lease agreement will expire next year.
     The office has created a working group to search for a new headquarters. "We have set up a working criterion that if construction is cheaper, we will build, if purchasing a property is cheaper, we will buy," Kala stated. He emphasized that nothing has been decided yet.
     The office's communications director, Jaroslav Broža, told ČTK that if a suitable building owned by the state were to be found, the office would prefer this cheapest solution.
     The Supreme Audit Office has already published an ad in the press, in which it is informally seeking suitable office spaces for short-term rental or purchase due to market research. The deadline for offers is August 14. The office has also negotiated with the owners of its current headquarters and received proposals from them that will be evaluated.
     The office will be negotiating with the Ministry of Finance about its budget for next year in the coming days. According to Kala, it has already incorporated an amount corresponding to the construction of a new headquarters into its proposal.
     The Supreme Audit Office has been located in rented premises in the Tokovo building since 2007. Its lease agreement was scheduled to end in March 2012, but the former president of the office, František Dohnal, decided at the end of last January that the office would exercise its right to extend it by 1.5 years. The office can thus remain there until the end of September 2013. "I believe that long-term, it is not a solution for the Supreme Audit Office to remain in this building," said Kala.
     Some members of the parliamentary control committee believe that the rent is too high. Until the end of 2010, the office paid an average of 68.5 million crowns per year. For last year and this year, it is expected to pay a total of 99.2 million crowns.