Construction of Hall of Justice overpriced
Press Release – July 18, 2008
In 2004, Ministry of Justice approved the regional court in Brno to invest in the planned construction of the Hall of Justice, which would house the municipal court, the court for the Brno-Country district, and the prosecution. From September 2007 to April 2008, auditors from the Supreme Audit Office (SAO) performed an audit of state budget funds spent on realization and construction of the Hall of Justice and disclosed their findings.
The investor violated the law of public orders since a consistency with the chosen propositions had not been claimed in the contract of work. The chosen projector was not bound to keep the schemed designs and the project documentation was developed without reference to economization. A challenging design was projected, which would involve an exhausting fabrication, capital-intensive materials, and costly interior features. According to the development records, the spending on construction reached over CZK 2.1 billion, in spite the documentation had formerly proposed only about CZK 800 million.
"The investors failed to reach the predefined aim – to construct the Hall of Justice with the costs of CZK 768 million. The costs increased over the building volume maximum parameter set at CZK 6,468 per a meter. The ministry demanded that economy measures should be implemented but not until it had already been unable to ensure the realization's financing,” said František Dohnal, president of the SAO.
Within the realization process, basic utility areas (offices, workrooms, sitting rooms, and negotiation halls) grew with 12 %. When the audit was about to finish, the approved costs had been spent and additional demands stretched the expenses to over CZK 1.8 billion. Ministry of Justice could not pay up the accounts of the regional court from the budget and that is why a property selling decree was passed in order to acquire the missing financial resources.
The auditing operation was included into the 2007 Audit Plan of the SAO under No. 07/22. Antonín Macháček, Member of the SAO Board, controlled the operation and drew up the audit report as well.
Radka Burketová
Communication Department
CR – Supreme Audit Office