Prague 1 cancels bizarre result of tender for restaurant

by   CIJ Linguistics
2020-07-30   10:56
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Prague 1 awarded a 5-year lease of a downtown restaurant to the company that offered the lowest bid in an official tender. Following criticism from the Pirate party, Prague 1's mayor Petr Hejma decided to cancel the tender and begin again. The winner of the tender was Gastro Stare Mesto, which is operator of the existing restaurant V Kolkovne, offered just CZK 5.5 million per year. For some reason, Prague 1 was uninterested in the next highest offer of CZK 8.5 million per year from Prague City Restaurace. It was also not convinced by the CZK 18 million per year (plus 20 percent of net profits) that the company Gastro Celnice offered for the space. When Prague 1 allowed the existing tenant to improve its offer, Gastro Stare Mesto matched the CZK 8.5 million offer but extended the term to 15 years. Mayor Hejma has justified the original decision, claiming the municipality had the legal firm Havel&Partners study the details and determine whether the deal was legal. Aktualne.cz quotes that document as follows: "In the matter of evaluating the validity of etending the option for extending the lease term, Prague 1 proceeded correctly." But the legal analysis warned that the possibility of a criminal trial over the matter couldn't be ruled out. This led Prague 1 to cancel the tender, says Mayor Hejma.