The Public Procurement Arbitartion Board (Közbeszerzési Döntőbizottság) has fined the Budapest Fine Arts Museum for Ft 3 million (€11,300) for modifying documentation of a tender for an underground expansion of the building following the announcement of the results, writes index.hu, based on MTI.
In summer 2009, the museum invited offices of three architectures – Zsolt Szécsi, István Mányi and Tamás Karácsony – to continue plans for building an underground visitor center on which work started in the late 1990s. The tender documentation said that the designers would be named “subcontractors” in the contract to be signed with the main contractor. Their fees, which would have been part of the expenses of the construction, would have been calculated according to tariffs of the Chamber of Architects.
Then in September, the museum announced that all three offices were winners in the tender, but before signing the contract with them, changed their status to “co-designers.” The Public Procurement Arbitartion Board ruled that changing the public procurement tender after announcing the winners was a violation of laws, so it issued a fine of Ft 3 million. This amount is considered a high fine in the practice of the board.