The introduction of digitalisation of construction procedures in the Czech Republic is insufficient and without faster construction procedures, construction companies, investors and small builders are losing more than CZK 7 billion every year. Digitisation could reduce the construction permitting process from an average of 5.4 years to 1.25 years. This is according to a study by Datarun. The Ministry for Regional Development (MMR) has been dealing with digitisation since 2011 and is currently under the responsibility of Deputy Prime Minister for Digitisation and Minister for Regional Development Ivan Bartoš (Pirates).
“Even after years, the development of systems that should primarily make life easier for builders has not even begun. After the change of government, contracts for information systems, which had been in the pipeline for years, were stopped for purely political reasons and replaced by another one. However, the state is unable to tender and implement even this one due to its own mistakes,” said Michal Půr, co-founder of Datarun.
According to Datarun’s study, the state is unable to implement the contracts for information systems headed by the Builder’s Portal and will not use the billion available from the European Union. However, the MMR does not agree with this.
The ministry cancelled the tender for the information system for the digitalisation of construction management (DMS) from 2021, with an estimated implementation cost of CZK 1.9 billion, and redistributed the aforementioned billion among the regions. Subsequently, it created a new tender for the system and in early June selected a new contractor to implement the DPR for approximately 1.2 billion cheaper than the 2021 bid.
“It should be recalled that the amendment to the new construction law was only signed by the president in May this year. The tender for the supplier of the digitalisation of construction procedures had to adapt to it. The original tenders did not meet the needs of the amendment and assumed an unnecessarily high price,” said Petr Waleczko, media representative of the Ministry of Regional Development.
However, the ministry is currently unable to conclude a contract with the new supplier due to objections from System Servis. According to Hospodářské noviny, the company wanted to participate in the tender with other partners, but withdrew because it found the terms and conditions non-standard and unreasonable. Consequently, it filed a complaint with the Office for the Protection of Competition (ÚOHS), which stopped the proceedings.
According to the MMR, the blockage should not delay the launch of the DSR scheduled for 1 July next year. Its operation has already been delayed twice, and the system was originally supposed to be fully operational this summer.
The state is not ready for digitalisation even according to 94 percent of construction firms, according to a May analysis by CEEC Research. Four-fifths of the surveyed project companies think that the most significant risks are related to the technological or knowledge adaptability of construction officials. Other significant risks associated with the digitalisation of construction management may be the passive attitude of local governments at the level of regions, cities and municipalities. Approximately half of the respondents considered the lack of methodological standardisation of the management of building design documentation in the format of BIM building information models as a risk, as well as half of the respondents considered data integration between registers, cadastre and other government systems as a risk.
Source: Datarun and CTK
