According to the Senate, the digitization of construction procedures shows fundamental shortcomings and serious errors. The Ministry for Regional Development (MMR) should consider establishing a crisis manager and a working group with representatives of building authorities or the Chamber of Architects. The upper chamber stated this in Wednesday’s resolution. Minister for Regional Development Ivan Bartoš (Pirates) stated that he has a list of shortcomings, but he wants to introduce the government first.
Prague
18:58 21 August 2024 Share on Facebook
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The Ministry for Regional Development should consider establishing a crisis manager and a working group with representatives of building authorities or the Chamber of Architects | Photo: René Volfík | Source: iROZHLAS.cz
In a roughly three-hour debate, the senators warned of possible economic consequences, the departure of workers from construction authorities, and potential lawsuits against the state for compensation. The chairman of the Czech Chamber of Architects, Jan Kasl, said that he welcomes the senate’s decision. However, according to the MMR, the establishment of a crisis manager would not solve the problem.
“We have a clear plan and schedule for deploying individual functions, which the law did not require in its essence. But it’s about the efficiency of the system,” Bartoš told the senators. For example, automatic templates for individual decisions, of which there are to be 130, are to be delivered by the end of August, he noted.
“The system does not work for a month and 21 days after its launch,” said Hynek Hanza (ODS), the proposer of the discussion of the problems of electronic construction management. He emphasized that it is not about politics, but about the future of construction management. “Another threat is economic consequences, subsidy consequences,” said the senator. “These are enormous billions that are at risk,” added Jiří Čunek (KDU-ČSL).
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A number of senators called for the suspension of the new construction law and for a transitional period during which construction would be permitted under the original law. According to Raduan Nwelati (ODS), the system is absolutely broken and it will probably not be possible to fix it even in a few months. “It may happen that many employees of construction authorities will leave just because of the approach of the Ministry for Regional Development,” said Jan Sobotka (STAN).
In the debate, the senators also questioned some specific changes, for example in the permitting of apartment buildings and sets of buildings and in the approval of buildings, which is also pointed out by the resolution of the upper chamber. “Without changing the law, some problems cannot be solved,” said Hana Kordová Marvanová from the ODS and TOP 09 club. Bartoš acknowledged the error in the case of the approval of buildings permitted before July, according to him, the ministry issued a methodology for the matter.
Call to withdraw
Petr Vícha, the sole SOCDEM senator, called on Bartoš to resign. “I personally think that the only thing to do is commit harakiri and resign. And to allow someone new to come in and try to do something about it,” he said.
Vícha pointed out that he feels that Bartoš is the only one who thinks that everything is working. On the contrary, Adéla Šípová (Pirates) stood up for Bartoš, who is the chairman of the pirate party. According to her, the mistake was that he dared to go into the digitization of construction procedures. “If he were to commit harakiri now and somehow leave, everything would fall under the table,” says Šípová.
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In the 14-point resolution, the Senate also recommended, for example, checking whether the integrated construction management system and the builder’s portal do not contain critical errors. According to the upper chamber, the ministry should describe the current situation, name the shortcomings and present a specific plan and timetable for their solution.
It should examine the possibility of legislative steps that would lead to the interruption of the effectiveness of the new construction law or enable the operation of the old and new construction law in order to create space for fine-tuning the system of digitization of construction management. According to Sobotka, the resolution is a recommendation for further action. Hanza spoke of an appeal to the government “to start doing something”.
In recent weeks, Bartoš has been regularly meeting with builders, designers and representatives of municipalities, who have been criticizing the current form of digitized construction management for a long time. He promised them that some basic deficiencies in the systems would be completed by the end of August.
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At the same time, the MMR published a schedule of when and what further adjustments it plans to make to the systems by the end of this year. According to Kasl, however, the question is whether the steps planned by the ministry will be sufficient, mainly regarding the operationalization of the Construction Management Information System used by officials. According to him, the appointment of a crisis manager and a working group would help the MMR to look at the current issue from an independent external perspective.
According to MMR spokesman Petr Waleczko, however, the appointment and filling of the position of crisis manager does not in itself ensure that the system will meet all user expectations within days or weeks.
“The MMR team spent a year and a half intensively working on the amendment to the Building Act, another year on the issue of digitization. He thus has an insight into this complex issue that a newly arrived crisis manager would not be able to gain in a few weeks or a month, regardless of his work commitment and qualities,” said Walezcko in the early evening on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, Bartoš was supposed to present the procedure for implementing the new system and the plan for solving the problems that accompany it at the cabinet meeting. On Tuesday, TOP 09 called for negotiations in the coalition. Some coalition politicians asked Bartoš during his vacation that the construction management systems be operational by the end of August.
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