Prague - The Supreme Audit Office (NKÚ) will not address the demolition of the building at the corner of Wenceslas Square and Opletalova Street. The NKÚ board rejected a request from the Senate Cultural Committee, justifying its decision by stating that it does not have the authority to control the Prague magistrate. This was communicated today by NKÚ President Miloslav Kala. The NKÚ was prompted to conduct an audit by the Senate Cultural Committee at the beginning of October. According to the committee, the authority should review the disputed decision of the heritage department of the magistrate, which allowed the demolition of the building in the neoclassical style. The demolition and the site permit were issued by the Prague 1 building authority in September. However, due to appeals, both permits have not yet acquired legal validity. Part of the experts and the public are protesting against the planned demolition of the building. "According to the law on the NKÚ, the Supreme Audit Office audits organizational units of the state and legal and natural persons. Since the Magistrate of the Capital City of Prague is not an organizational unit of the state, nor a legal or natural person, the NKÚ does not have the authority to control it. Therefore, the NKÚ cannot and will not deal with the request of the Senate Committee for Education, Science, Culture, Human Rights, and Petitions," said Kala. The office has already sent an official letter to the chairman of the cultural committee, Marcel Chládek, explaining its decision. In it, it states that the NKÚ is not authorized to control decisions of state administration or self-governance. It could only deal with, for example, the control of the capital city’s management of state property. The investor, the company Flow East, intends to replace the corner building, the former printing house on Opletalova Street, and a large plot in the courtyard with a structure with nine above-ground floors. It is to be two floors higher than the neighboring buildings. The top two floors are to be set back. Discussions about the project have been ongoing for several months, and there have been several demonstrations against the demolition. In July, however, the Minister of Culture in resignation, Alena Hanáková, decided that the building would not be protected as a monument, which paved the way for the demolition request. The company has owned the building since 1994. The costs of the project, including the purchase of the land and the building, are said to reach billions of crowns; the new construction is expected to cost another billion. For the past several years, a number of experts have criticized the investor's intention. At the end of October, the remnants of the former printing house on Opletalova Street were demolished. The demolition was ordered by the Prague 1 building authority due to the emergency condition of the building.
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