Contracting and Outsourcing in Public Sector in the Czech Republic

The study builds on the original research of contracting and outsourcing in the Czech public sector and assesses them from a comprehensive perspective. The aim of this study is to contribute to the recent discussion about contracting/outsourcing in public sector and its results. The research goal is to analyse the results of contracting and outsourcing in the Czech Republic. Following research questions are set: "Does contracting/outsourcing in public sector in the Czech Republic bring efficiency gains?" and "If not, why contracting/outsourcing services in the public sector in the Czech Republic does not bring efficiency gains?". To answer the research questions two alternatives of services provision, namely internalisation and contracting, were evaluated. The three criteria, 1) expenditure on the provision of the service per citizen/employee, 2) the expenditure per performance indicator and 3) the quality of services evaluated on the basis of citizen/employee satisfaction as consumers of services were used in evaluation. To evaluate the efficiency of contracting services in the public sector was used the method of multi-criteria evaluation for selected samples - the method of the best values of criteria. It is not possible to come to the final conclusion about higher efficiency of internal versus external production. However, what can be clearly and un-doubtfully documented is the fact that depending on the concrete case the more efficient solutions differ. The core factor of the limited success of contracting and outsourcing is the quality of contract management, which represents critical problem in the Czech Republic.