Completion of the new library in Hradec is threatened by a missing 20 million

Hradec Králové - The construction of a new building for the scientific library in Hradec Králové is nearing completion, however, the opening of the building to the public, originally scheduled for September 2008, is likely to be delayed. The library management currently lacks 21 million crowns for internal furnishings, reports today's edition of Mladá fronta Dnes (MfD) for the Hradec Králové Region.
    "We cannot open the library without furniture and other equipment. So far, we have been unsuccessfully requesting funds. If we do not manage to secure the money by February, we will jeopardize the timeline according to which the interiors should be completed by June next year. Without secured funds, we cannot even announce a tender for the interior supply. I truly do not know if we will have the money by then," admitted the director of the Study and Scientific Library in Hradec Králové, Eva Svobodová.
    The lack of funds, according to the director, was caused by a change in the value-added tax rate, which was not anticipated in the project. "When we announced a public tender for the construction contractor in 2004, there was an increase in the tax for construction work from 5 to 19 percent. However, the Ministry of Culture did not increase our budget, and we thus lost 40 million crowns," Svobodová stated.
    The Ministry of Culture, which is financing the construction, does not want to release money for furniture, claiming that the funds for equipment should be provided by the Hradec Králové Region Office, which is establishing the library. The region had previously refused to release the funds, stating that it is a state investment.
    The construction of the new building, costing nearly 395 million crowns, began in the fall of 2004.
    The State Study Library was established in Hradec Králové in 1949; initially, it was located on Eliščina embankment, and from 1968, also in the building of the former Jewish synagogue. That building was returned to the Jewish community in 1994, and the library pays rent for the premises, hence the library management was striving for the construction of a new headquarters.