photo: anobudelip.cz
The Prime Minister is witnessing the biggest disaster since the revolution in the introduction of public instruments. Its name is the "Digital Construction Management" of Minister Ivan Bartos. He has paralysed the construction authorities with a completely botched project and is holding back investments worth CZK 770 million a day.
Karel Havlíček, Chairman of the Shadow Government
The government's Titanic is going down and Petr Fiala is confusedly talking about the situation being exceptionally good. Josef Sikel has understood where the wind is blowing from and is heading in a single boat towards European shores. Pirates are dancing artlessly on the deck. I am talking about the introduction of the Building Act.
Let's review how time has gone. In 2020 and 2021, the government of Andrej Babiš prepared a construction law. It was completely discussed with the professional community, commented on and approved. Valid from 2022, it was proclaimed law in 2021. In 2022, the government of Petro Fiala rejects this law and comes up with its own version, despite warnings from the expert community. At the same time, it crashes all tenders for the digitisation of the construction procedure and starts all over again.
The culprit is not only Ivan Bartos. Martin Kupka, STAN representatives and others bled for these changes on the barricades. It was delayed by one year. From 1 July 2024 it was supposed to come into force for the general public. It was obvious that this could not turn out well, and that is why we warned about it for several months. The Competition Authority confirmed that the digital solution had been tendered in a non-transparent way. Of course, pirates were competing. The professional community warned against the launch, and even the President warned.
It was triggered anyway, and it's the biggest flop in the history of the introduction of public tools since the revolution. Nothing works. Frustrated are the planners, builders, developers, investors, mayors and officials calling it a travesty. They want to go on strike. The economic associations are also in the same boat.
It's not allowed. Mayors report a collapse of the building authorities. Officials have not been trained enough. No permits or approvals can be granted. Fees have changed. A well, for example, now costs 10,000 crowns. It is not true what Bartoš claims, that the change in fees was within the framework of the law we prepared. It was put there by this government as part of the 2023 amendment to the Administrative Fees Act.
Bartoš plays the role of a total alibi and claims the fault lies with the authorities. The Prime Minister is trying to shut the whole thing down. Our government will not do any more experiments and we will bring back into play the main parameters of our prepared law. Unfortunately, the damage of this Government will be irreversible. We have lost four years.
Martin Kolovratník, Shadow Transport Minister
Digitisation as this government has done it is a return to typewriters. I feel that it is all a computer game. The recodification of the Building Code was handed in ribbons in the summer of 2021. We were told then that everything had to be ready in two years. We knew it could be done, but it would take two years. This government has destroyed and rewritten the whole bill. We are now in the state we are in.
Filling in the data about other participants in the construction procedure does not work at the construction offices, the automatic link to the map documents does not work, and the officials do not have a link to the state administration authorities concerned. Officials have to work manually on the documents. It is not possible to open attachments with project documentation. The extreme is that when the clerk wants to generate the final document, it generates a document with randomly occurring words. It cannot be edited back.
We call on Bartoš to resign and on Prime Minister Fiala to stop being silent and finally do something. He should do the same as he did during the energy crisis, when a team was set up at the Government Office to solve the problem. Fiala should do the same with the digitisation of construction procedures.
Kamal Farhan, Shadow Health Minister
I would like to comment on the persistent shortage of medicines on the Czech market. Firstly, there is still a shortage of some basic medicines, for example, antibiotics. Secondly, Germany is preparing large purchases of medicines, and wants to expand its stocks for six months ahead. This is the consumption volume of five Central European countries. The consumption of the German market, plus the need for a six-month supply, makes up a quarter of the sales of medicines in the European Union. Pharmaceutical companies will not be able to increase production capacity. Austria has also started buying medicines and wants to have a four-month supply. Poland has a three-month reserve.
The Valek amendment solves nothing. Minister Válek's statements have been proven false. According to him, this is the biggest reform of the drug legislation. However, it is only eight pages long, and everything he spent a year preparing has been changed by a comprehensive amendment that was longer than the amendment itself.
It's like expecting the weather to solve the situation. If Germany builds up those stocks, our market will be affected and the Minister will have a government holiday. Instead of increasing activity, wars do nothing. Suppliers are taking advantage of the loopholes that this law allows them. One of them is that drug shortages can only be reported on the day of an emergency.
I repeatedly pointed this out during the debate, and Válek shut down the debate in the Chamber. Our Health Minister does not care about the problems and prefers to present visions and comment on foreign policy. It is a calling card for TOP 09 and shows how bad it is that the Prime Minister has friends from Brno in the Government.
Jana Mračková Vildumetzová, Shadow Minister of the Interior
I would like to comment on the digitisation of construction proceedings. I would like to call on the governors and other organisations, such as the Union of Towns and Municipalities and the Association of Local Authorities, because I see at the moment that it is these organisations that are defending the interests of mayors within the regional authorities. They are the appellate body, where the Association of Regions is. If something like that were to occur, I would convene the association immediately. I would deal with the situation.
We learn after 25 days that it probably doesn't work. Even though the Minister told us on the floor of the House of Commons that everything would be fine. That on 1 July everything will be working. These organisations should also make their views known and start fighting to improve the situation as soon as possible.
Another topic is the Czech Post Office, which is in such a state under the leadership of Interior Minister Rakušan that on 1 July a year has passed since 300 branches were closed without any analysis. He simply decided. Mr Rakusan has told us that this is not a transformation of the Czech Post, that it is yet to come and that the post office will be split into two sectors. One with postal services and the other will be commercial, where logistics will go and there will be parcel shops.
We were told that the transformation of the Czech Post would take place on 1 April, then on 1 July, and today we are at the end of July and we have not approved any legislation that would allow for the transformation, and there is no transformation taking place. All that has taken place is that the 300 branches have been abandoned and in some cases the buildings are dilapidated.
The buildings haven't sold, and there are no takers. Now we are also hearing from mayors that there are starting to be so-called mobile post offices that would only come to a given town or village once a week or within a certain time frame. That the office hours are changing and that on some days the post office is closed in some places. These are precisely the things that do not help the quality and availability of postal services.
We said to go the way of Posta Partner according to the Austrian model, if the parcel office and logistics would be separated. There won't be as many services for the citizens and if I were in charge of the city, I would try to find a business project that would take the post office and its services. It's sad that in neighboring states it works and here it's going the other way, see the layoffs of deliverymen, the purchase of new cars and then you look at the fact that the Board of Supervisors is still the same, has the same number of people. Why hasn't there been a reduction in the number of representatives on the board as well? Because there is a remuneration for being on the Supervisory Board.
I will be sending a letter to the Minister with a lot of questions, for example, I will want to see the resolution where the government approved the transformation of the Czech Post. If you look, the government did not approve it and only took note of it. Then I want to see the law that deals with the transformation of the Czech Post. Why is it not in the legislative text and why is no one commenting on it? I will then want to know the figures on how many buildings have been sold, because the information that is coming through tells us very little.
When the branches were closed on July 1 last year, there were a number of contracts in play and I wondered what financial impact this had on the Czech Post, how much was paid in contractual penalties. We also want to know what the Czech Post's credit is. We in the Chamber of Deputies have pushed through an audit of the Post Office by the National Audit Office, and I would be interested to know whether that audit is under way. In my opinion, it is not, and I would like to know why. We see the way in which these things are run. The Post Office is supposed to be there for our citizens first and foremost, and the citizen is clearly not the first priority for Mr Rakusan.
You can read the full press conference play here.
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