30th January 2017

EconLab on UOHS: Despite improvement review procedures still take too long

EconLab, a think tank at the Prague Charles University, analyzed 3,541 first and second instance decisions made by the Office for the Protection of Competition (UOHS) on requests for review of decisions about awarding public contracts in the period 2012 - 2016.

In the first instance, the length of the review procedures is 54 days (60 days is the time limit for delivering a decision set by the law). In the second instance, it is 200 days. To avoid delays, procuring entities overuse tenders without real competition (single-bid tenders) or use the criterion of the lowest price as the main criterion for awarding a contract. Using the negotiated procedure without publication (JŘBU jednací řízení bez uveřejnění, the single-bid case) means four times lower risk of decision review than in the case of an open competition of bids. This leads to dependence on a single supplier which costs hundreds of millions of CZK crowns per year, EconLab says.

Read the study (in Czech). 

Read also an analysis by the European Commission for the period 2009-2012 (attached).

Members of the American Chamber of Commerce in the Czech Republic