Skanska CEO: Crisis makes building orders more transparent

Prague, Feb 10 (CTK) - The crisis in construction, paradoxically, has a positive effect on the transparency of public tenders, Dan Tok, CEO of Czech and Slovak builder Skanska, said during the presentation of the company's business results for last year.

"I see a significant improvement here. This, however, is because orders are so scarce that participants cannot make agreements among themselves. Moreover, there are several entities that do not want to agree at all as a matter of principle, making agreements impossible," said Tok, the head of one of the largest building companies in the Czech Republic.

"The combination of these two factors causes that orders in construction are now being gained more or less transparently and in a fair way," he added.

However, another vice is beginning to spread, namely more frequent appeals of companies against results of tenders. Appeals are frequently filed even by bidders which have placed third, fourth or even lower. The whole process is thus getting excessively long, Tok noted.

The crisis in construction can be blamed also for this. "Orders are so scarce that everyone in construction is literally hungry for them. Companies are clutching at any straws to gain an order," he said.

Tok blames in particular the government for this situation, complaining that the government does not support investments into construction.

"If investments and construction work started, the engine of the economy would slowly get started again. Other activities would connect to the building part, providing more jobs," Tok remarked.

This is not happening thus far and I therefore ask how the government wants to kick start the economic growth. If I look at the orders that the two largest state investors have in stock, namely railway route administration SZDC and the Road and Motorway Directorate (RSD), there are not many," Tok said.

It looks like the government has decided to save to get rich, he remarked. "However, it beings to show that saving will not make anyone rich. It is necessary to build something as well," he pointed out.

The crisis in Czech construction has lasted for four years already and Czech Statistical Office (CSU) data confirm it.

Last year alone, Czech construction sank by 6.5 percent against 2011 and in December 2012 the decline accelerated to 17.3 percent. Tok, similarly to other people from the sector, does not expect the development to change in the coming two to three years.