The Czech government has admitted that the defects of its digital construction permit system are so severe, that fixing them may not be practical. Starting from scratch would add insult to the injury of delay. Transport Minister Martin Kupka warned that coming up with an entirely new system could take until after next year’s elections. The government expects to decide this week whether it doesn’t make more sense just to start over again.
It’s almost sounds as if Kupka would prefer this. Last week, he warned a group of construction experts that estimates of it taking up to 18 months could be overly-optimistic. His team is currently working out an analysis to present at Wednesday’s government meeting. “It will present possible further course of action, from which a solution should emerge,” Kupka said.
But we already know how this turns out. If the government begins creating a new digitized system, whoever’s in power after the elections will throw out whatever progress was made on it. If it decides to fix the existing mess, the solution will have to come before the coalition parties begin their traditional pre-election bickering.
As if all this weren’t bad enough, there’s a backlog of construction permits now piling up. An improvised work-around could make it through parliament by December that would allow building authorities to go back to using the old system on a temporary basis. But developers warn they’re running out of time and could face problems if permits on new projects aren’t issued soon.
Back in August, Director of the Association of Developers Zdeněk Soudný said that in view of the seriousness of the situation, “all expert groups agree on the need for a quick legislative measure in the form of a bypass to remove legal uncertainty until the digital system functions comprehensively and flawlessly.” That was true then. It’s even more urgent now.
