The Czech antitrust office (UOHS) has cancelled a tender for the construction of the Janacek Culture Centre in Brno, worth approximately CZK 2.4 billion, UOHS spokesman Martin Svanda said today. The construction of the centre was due to start this year. An appeal against the decision is possible.
The Janacek Cultural Centre is to serve as a large concert hall for Filharmonie Brno.
“UOHS, in its not-yet-final first-instance decision, cancelled the tender procedure launched by the City of Brno and the Brno Communications organisation for the construction of the Janacek Culture Centre, due to unreasonable and discriminatory requirements for proving the qualification of suppliers,” Svanda told CTK.
UOHS launched the administrative proceedings at the request of the Gardenline company. It found that the requirement for bidders to submit a reference contract for the construction of a civic amenities building worth at least CZK 1 billion was illegitimate.
“At the same time, the contracting authority failed to objectively justify why the contract could not be fulfilled by contractors who have not built a civic amenity building, but can prove their experience in the implementation of other ground structures that have the same material and structural form as the intended cultural centre,” Svanda added.
According to UOHS, the city thus unreasonably limited the range of contractors who could participate in the tender, which will now have to be relaunched.
At the end of January, Brno postponed the deadline for submission of price offers until the beginning of March. The tender for the contractor is a two-round procedure, with four companies that met the qualification requirements emerging as bidders in the first round. In the second round, these bidders must submit price offers, the competitive price is CZK 2.4 billion.
The construction of the Janacek Culture Centre, which includes a 1,200-seat auditorium, is to take three years.
