EFFICIENCY IN AWARDING OF SMALL-SCALE PUBLIC CONTRACTS: THE CASE OF THE CZECH ARMED FORCES

The award of small-scale public contracts in the Armed Forces of the Czech Republic (CAF) is transparent thanks to an information system called the National Electronic Tool (NET). The tender documentation, competitors and the results of the procurement procedure are among the most important data that are published in this system. The main goal of the paper is to find critical points in public procurement in the CAF through an analysis focused on 3 178 small-scale public contracts being awarded in 2020. Pareto rule and ABC analysis were used to find commodities, services and works being procured with the highest frequency during 2020 in the CAF. Within these public contracts, the types of procurement procedures, numbers of tenders, length of award procedures and reasons for their extension were examined. Then, a SWOT analysis was applied in combination with questionnaires and multiple criteria evaluation of the CAF experts to find efficiency gaps related to the process of small-scale public contracts awarding in the NET system. Proposals to improve the efficiency of public procurement are focused on training staff responsible for small-scale public contracts awarding in military units. Based on the SWOT analysis, this aspect was identified as the most important weakness from the perspective of military units' practitioners.