Zaorálek cancels the Czechiana portal project as megalomaniacal

Prague - Minister of Culture Lubomír Zaorálek (Social Democracy) will cancel the project of the Czechiana portal, which was supposed to provide access to digitized materials of cultural heritage. According to him, it is megalomaniacal and redundant. It would cost 449.5 million crowns, of which 160 million was to come from the state budget, the rest from European funds. Zaorálek said this to reporters today. He mentioned that only a few days remained to halt the project without penalties and legal consequences. Just this January, the ministry confirmed in response to CTK that preparations were underway to sign a contract with the winner of the public tender and that the portal would launch this October, albeit with a year’s delay.

The project had been in preparation for several years and was approved last year as a priority within the government program Digital Czechia. The tender for the construction of the portal was announced by the ministry last April when the office was headed by Zaorálek's predecessor and party colleague Antonín Staněk. At that time, the ministry stated that photographs, paintings, maps, books, archival materials, films, recordings of television and radio broadcasts, and music would be made available to users. The materials for the system were to be provided by the National Heritage Institute, the National Museum, the National Library, the National Gallery, the National Film Archive, and the Moravian Regional Library.

Technically, the Czechiana portal was only supposed to redirect requests for specific works to the institutions from which the materials originate. It was meant to connect to the European Commission's Europeana project, in which all freely distributable cultural works of EU countries should be available in the future. Currently, it contains over 58 million artworks, artifacts, books, videos, and sounds from across Europe.

The envelopes with the bids were opened last October and the contract winner for 269 million crowns excluding VAT was the Company for the National Information Cultural Portal Czechiana Tempest, with the Czech It Cluster cooperative as a partner. Statements from the companies are being sought by CTK.

According to Zaorálek, Czechiana was the largest IT contract that was being prepared at the ministry. "The whole matter was managed in a very strange way, we will conduct an audit," the minister said today. He labeled the project as a black hole. So far, the ministry has not paid anything for the project. Ministry spokesperson Michaela Lagronová stated in response to CTK that the ministry wants to have an overview of IT contracts in individual contributory organizations as well. "However, we are monitoring this on an ongoing basis," she added.

When asked by reporters whether personal repercussions could follow due to the Czechiana project, the minister indicated that it depends on the outcome of the audit. He reminded that in 2017, the Ministry of the Interior alerted the Ministry of Culture to the discrepancies between costs and effects of the Czechiana project and requested the Ministry of Culture to consider whether the money was appropriate. "At that time, the Ministry of Culture responded that it could not do so because there was nothing to compare it with," Zaorálek said today.

He stated that Czech institutions are capable of supplying the necessary information to Europeana even without the Czechiana project. According to him, the money that was to go to the Czechiana portal will be used more purposefully by individual Czech institutions.

Zaorálek took office at the ministry six months ago. Today, he mentioned that personnel changes allowed him to get a clearer picture of the economic contexts of individual projects. He noted that this matter is not connected with Prime Minister Andrej Babiš's (ANO) call for ministries to review their IT contracts. He stated that as part of the changes he is implementing at the office, the project office, which was unusually placed directly under the minister, will be transferred under the purview of the deputy for economics.

In recent weeks, some ministries have faced issues due to IT systems. The Ministry of Transport dealt with an overpriced electronic motorway toll system, while the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (MPSV) was raided by police this week due to a tender, and two people were charged. Due to the contract for the electronic motorway toll system, Minister of Transport Vladimír Kremlík (for ANO) left the government in January.