The state announced project tenders in April almost as much as in a quarter

Prague - The state continues with vigorous planning of constructions. In April, it announced contracts for project work worth 345 million CZK, which is significantly the highest since the beginning of this year. This is evident from an analysis by CEEC Research, which has been made available to ČTK. In the entire first quarter, public administration issued tenders worth 398 million CZK.
  Project companies found a total of 25 new public contracts in the Public Procurement Bulletin in April. Since the beginning of the year, the number of announced tenders has increased year-on-year by 97.5 percent.
   "Since the beginning of 2015, authorities have announced tenders for project work with a total value of 747 million CZK. Their value compared to the same period in 2014 has slightly increased by 1.4 percent. However, the number of announced competitions has nearly doubled," stated Jiří Vacek, director of the analytical company CEEC Research.
  As construction professionals suggest, the state is trying to catch up on delays accumulated in construction preparations in recent years. "The continuing growth of project contracts confirms the public sector's effort for intense investment preparation, which has almost come to a halt in recent years. Insufficient project preparation remains one of the main reasons for the low readiness of projects for drawing financial resources from the EU," noted Tomáš Koranda, a member of the board of the construction company Hochtief CZ.
  Of the contracts announced from January to April of this year, only a very small amount has been awarded so far (11 percent of the number and three percent of the volume). Contracts worth three million CZK were canceled by authorities before the selection process was completed. Companies thus secured work worth 22 million CZK. The value for which project companies received work was, on average, nine percent lower than the announced value.
  In the first four months of this year, the selection processes for project work worth a total of 599 million CZK were completed, representing an almost seven percent increase (6.8 percent) compared to the same period last year. The number of contracts awarded in the period from January to April 2015 also significantly increased, by 15.1 percent to 145 selection processes. This includes tenders announced in the previous year.