The lower house of parliament today passed a government proposal that would abolish the Supreme Construction Office and its subordinate regional construction offices, which are organized along the lines of the financial administration. The government’s amendment to the new construction law from last year abolishes the approved model of purely state construction administration and maintains all construction offices in municipalities. However, it retains the Specialised and Appellate Construction Authority, which will be mainly responsible for strategic construction projects such as motorways or power plants. It also makes other changes. According to the Ministry of Regional Development, it will create a clear, modern and predictable environment for both builders and planners.
Along with the amendment, the House of Commons yesterday supported the government’s related new bill on the Unified Environmental Statement (UES) in its first reading. This opinion is intended to merge the permits of all authorities responsible for the environment before the construction process. MEPs discussed both bills in a joint debate. For both of them, they extended the deadline for committee deliberations by 20 days to 80 days.
The amendment modifies the new construction law, which was prepared by the former government of Andrej Babiš (ANO). The parties of the current government coalition, which were in opposition in the last parliamentary term, criticised the new construction law. In particular, they warned that it would jeopardise construction procedures and cause the collapse of the construction industry. One of the arguments of the current government against the creation of the Supreme Construction Authority is mainly the costs caused by the transfer of property and thousands of officials to the new state authority.
The then government, on the other hand, argued that the new construction law with the Supreme Construction Authority and regional construction authorities would speed up construction proceedings. The main aim was to speed it up by meeting deadlines. For example, officials were to be substitutable and it was not to happen that the office would be dysfunctional due to, for example, an official’s illness.
The amendment maintains all the current 694 building offices in municipalities, with the possibility of reducing this number according to building activity. The regional building offices will be the current regional offices. From the middle of next year, a Specialised and Appeals Construction Authority will start operating, which will be in charge of large infrastructure constructions such as motorways, national railways or power plants. Other constructions will be subject to permitting under existing regulations until 30 June 2024. After a six-month delay, the digitalisation of the construction procedure should start on 1 January 2024.
Regional Development Minister Ivan Bartos (Pirates), on the other hand, said yesterday that the purpose of the postponement of the creation of the Supreme Construction Authority, which was approved by Parliament earlier this year, was to prevent the unwanted destruction of the construction procedure. He said the abolition of the office would also save the state billions of crowns. On the other hand, he said, by keeping the construction authorities at the municipalities, the construction procedure will be returned to where it belongs, i.e. to the territory. He also said that the integration of the concerned authorities will change by the fact that the newly discussed law will introduce the so-called unified environmental opinion. This will be a binding opinion in terms of all public interests in environmental protection and will serve as a basis for decision-making.
The proposed changes to the Building Act were criticised by Bartoš’s predecessor as minister, Klára Dostálová (ANO), who drafted and introduced the new Building Act. She called the unified environmental opinion a “super stamp” that will serve as a ticket to the construction office. She said the government’s amendment to the construction law resigns to the rights of citizens who demand that authorities meet deadlines. She reiterated her argument that if a citizen fails to meet a deadline to the state, he or she will be fined, but if the state fails to meet a deadline to a citizen, nothing will happen. She said the government’s proposal threatened compliance with deadlines. The retention of the current building authorities would not ensure compliance with the deadlines, she said. She said that in the last few days it has been possible to find a consensus with the coalition on the need to prepare a comprehensive amendment. This proposal, she said, should serve to ensure that future governments do not roll back the regulation of construction procedures.
Transport Minister Martin Kupka (ODS) said that he perceived her words as an important positive message that there is a will on the part of the opposition to cooperate on a joint consensus comprehensive amendment proposal.
According to the new regulation, regional authorities will exercise the same powers of a superior administrative authority over municipal authorities as they do now. They would now have to authorise in the first instance certain constructions subject to environmental impact assessments or certain major water works. The Specialised and Appellate Construction Authority is to be the administrative appeal body in relation to the regional authorities in these cases.
The Czech Chamber of Architects and the Chamber of Commerce have previously expressed reservations about the amendment to the Construction Act and the unified environmental opinion. According to the Chamber of Architects, the amendment will not significantly speed up or simplify the construction procedure in many cases and is a step backwards. According to the President of the Czech Chamber of Commerce Vladimír Dlouhy, the draft is detached from practice.
Source: CTK
