New parliament 19 percent more expensive than planned

2023-09-29 09:57:15

In addition, completion was delayed by 26.5 months, the audit body reported in its report presented today, Friday. The focus was on organization, schedule, cost and budget development as well as awards from 2015 to 2022. The number of visitors and the number of rented spaces has increased.

The parliament was renovated in 2018 and 2022 and reopened in January 2023. The project examined by the RH includes both the renovation of the parliament building as well as the interim location and relocation – an estimated cost of 517.5 million euros. This means that the project cost 19 percent or around 83.1 million euros more than estimated in November 2015. Projects and measures related to building renovation also incurred additional costs of 18 million euros, and additional costs of 3.1 million euros for preparation.

Renovation also took longer than planned

However, the renovation not only cost more than expected, but also took longer. Even before the pandemic, the project was delayed by 16.6 months. There was initially no comprehensive investigation of harmful substances and contaminants; award procedures were revoked because the bidders’ offers significantly exceeded the upper cost limit. There was a delay of around seven months due to the corona pandemic, and completion ultimately took 26.5 months longer than planned in a preliminary draft.

The RH recommends that there should be an execution schedule with all main services and penalty dates at the time of the tender, but at the latest at the start of construction. There was a lack of necessary details here. Defects were also found in the tender documents, which led to performance deviations, cost increases and additional orders. In the future, in the quality assurance process of the tender documents, attention should be paid to “consistent processing of all comments from contractors involved in the review process,” is the recommendation. There was also criticism of the façade renovation, which was only commissioned later.

Heating energy requirements could be reduced

According to the RH, fire protection and accessibility were implemented in accordance with the law. The heating energy requirement per square meter and year was reduced by 61 percent. The fact that the building’s energy requirements remain almost the same is due to the increase in the area used – instead of around 36,800, there are now around 43,000 square meters. However, office space has decreased by 100 square meters. Meanwhile, the space rented by Parliament grew by around 19,400 square meters or 142 percent between February 2016 and November 2022, resulting in additional rental costs of 3.3 million euros per year. The RH recommends that the need should be assessed on an ongoing basis and the rented areas should no longer be expanded.

The number of visitors has increased: While an average of 100,000 visitors per year were counted before the renovation, 500,000 are expected in 2023.