Five months after completing a six-month study of the money spent by the government on Prague’s ring road, the Highest Control Office (NKU) has released its findings that the the Czech Highway Authority overpaid by more than CZK 5.7bn. In view of suspicions that the waste could be the result of criminal activity, it’s filed charges to force an investigation. At the heart of the overpayments were changes to the original plans, higher prices, and land purchases for the D1 highway interchange project. The massive interchange, now mostly operational, cost over CKZ 650m more than the original contract cost for, thanks to a change to the project that was implemented without considering other solutions. The original plan called for the 83 km road to be completed in 2008, at a cost of CZK 48bn. To date, just 41km of the road have been built at a cost of 34bn.
