Sunday, 1 February 2026
The Regional Court in Brno will again review whether the Ministry for Regional Development acted lawfully when awarding one of the contracts linked to the digitalisation of the building permit process. The reassessment follows a ruling by the Supreme Administrative Court (NSS), which upheld appeals filed by the ministry during the previous electoral term and returned the case to the lower court for further examination.
According to the current leadership of the ministry, the NSS decision concerns procedural aspects of how the case was handled by the courts and administrative bodies, rather than responsibility for the technical or organisational problems that accompanied the launch of the digital system.
The dispute centres on a March 2024 decision by the Office for the Protection of Competition (ÚOHS), which prohibited the ministry from fulfilling a contract for a software environment intended to enable data and information sharing within the digital building permit system. ÚOHS concluded that the contract had been awarded through a negotiated procedure without prior publication, an exceptional method permitted only under narrowly defined conditions.
While the antimonopoly authority acknowledged that the ministry faced extremely urgent circumstances, it determined that these were largely self-inflicted. According to ÚOHS, the ministry had previously set unlawful conditions in an open tender, which contributed to subsequent delays and forced it into a time-pressured procurement process. The Regional Court initially dismissed the ministry’s lawsuit against the ÚOHS decision but must now reassess the case in light of the NSS ruling.
In its decision, the NSS stated that the ministry could not be regarded solely as a passive party responding to external pressures. The Regional Court is expected to examine whether the ministry acted as a reasonable and informed contracting authority, whether changes to the digital building permit architecture resulted from its own initiative or external influences, how legislative changes affected the process, and whether any administrative shortcomings played a role.
The disputed contract was awarded while the ministry was led by Ivan Bartoš (Pirates). The appeal to the NSS was filed during the tenure of his successor, Petr Kulhánek (STAN). The ministry is currently headed by Zuzana Mrázová (ANO).
In a statement issued following the ruling, the Ministry for Regional Development said the NSS decision should not be interpreted as questioning the existence of problems in the digitalisation of the building permit process. According to the ministry, those problems stem from decisions and procedures adopted by previous leaderships, which it says undermined system functionality and created legal uncertainty.
The digital building permit system was launched in 2024 and was accompanied by significant operational difficulties, drawing criticism from local authorities, developers and opposition parties. The controversy ultimately led to Bartoš’s dismissal from government and the departure of the Pirate Party from the governing coalition. The ÚOHS has also examined other contracts related to the digitalisation project in separate proceedings.
Source: CTK
