How Czech public procurement works

Czech public bodies spend a great deal of money on buying things: roads, software, cleaning, school meals, ambulances. A single law governs hundreds of thousands of those decisions, and from outside the process often looks slow. The slowness is largely deliberate. Procurement law exists to make public purchasing transparent, competitive and open to challenge.

This explainer summarises the structure in general terms. It is not legal advice. Anyone bidding in or running a tender should rely on the Act itself, official guidance and a specialist.

The legal framework

The Public Procurement Act (Act no. 134/2016 Coll.) is the main law. It implements EU directives on public procurement and concessions, so the structure will be familiar to anyone who has dealt with tenders elsewhere in the EU. The Ministry of Regional Development is responsible for policy and for central guidance and methodology. The EU basics are summarised on the European Commission's pages.

The Act applies to public contracting authorities: the state, regions, municipalities, bodies governed by public law and, in certain cases, entities in the utilities sectors. It covers contracts for works, supplies and services awarded for payment. Concessions have their own rules.

Principles

A few principles apply to every procedure: transparency, proportionality, equal treatment and non-discrimination. An authority cannot write a specification to fit a single supplier, cannot set conditions that favour local firms without justification and cannot split a contract artificially to stay under a threshold.

Thresholds in principle

The value of the contract decides which rules apply. The authority estimates the value before it starts (the předpokládaná hodnota), excluding VAT, and compares it with the thresholds.

Above the EU thresholds, which the European Commission revises periodically and which differ for central authorities, other authorities and sectoral entities, and for works versus supplies and services, the full regime applies. The authority must publish the notice in the EU's tender system, use the prescribed procedures and observe longer time limits.

Below the EU thresholds but above the national thresholds set in the Act, a contract is a below-threshold contract (podlimitní). A simplified procedure is available, with shorter time limits.

Below the national thresholds lie small-scale contracts (veřejné zakázky malého rozsahu). The Act does not apply the full regime to them, but the authority must still observe the basic principles and often its own internal rules. Thresholds change by amendment and by Commission regulation (as of 2026; check the Ministry of Regional Development and the Public Procurement Bulletin).

Procedures

The Act provides several procedures. The common ones are:

• Open procedure, in which any interested supplier can tender.
• Restricted procedure, in which the authority first selects candidates and then invites them to tender.
• Negotiated procedure with publication, for cases where the need cannot be met without negotiation.
• Competitive dialogue, used for complex projects where the authority needs to discuss solutions.
• Simplified below-threshold procedure, for the lower band.
• Negotiated procedure without publication, only in narrow cases defined by the Act, such as urgency not caused by the authority, or a single possible supplier for technical reasons.

Framework agreements, dynamic purchasing systems and electronic auctions exist for repeat purchases.

Qualification and evaluation

Suppliers must show they are qualified. The Act distinguishes basic capacity (no relevant convictions, no tax or social security arrears, for example), professional capacity (such as the relevant trade licence), economic and financial standing, and technical qualification, such as references. Authorities can accept a statutory declaration at first and ask the winner to submit the evidence. Trade licences are explained in Czech business licences.

The Act also requires disclosure of the supplier's ownership structure, to keep anonymous companies from winning contracts; see the beneficial ownership register.

Tenders are evaluated on economic advantage. The criteria must be announced in advance. Price is often one of them, but quality and other measurable criteria are allowed. Abnormally low prices must be examined.

Electronic tools and publication

Communication runs electronically. The National Electronic Tool (NEN) is the state's e-procurement platform, and other certified electronic tools are used by many authorities. The Public Procurement Bulletin (Věstník veřejných zakázek) is the information system for notices. Notices above the EU thresholds are also published in the EU's tender system.

After the award, contracts of public bodies above a small value must generally be published in the Register of Contracts (registr smluv). Such a contract takes effect only on publication, and if it is not published within three months of signature it is treated as cancelled from the start. This sits in a separate law, the Register of Contracts Act (no. 340/2015 Coll.). See how to sell to the Czech state for the supplier's point of view.

Remedies and oversight

A supplier who believes the authority has breached the rules can object to the authority and then petition the Office for the Protection of Competition (Úřad pro ochranu hospodářské soutěže, ÚOHS) in Brno. The Office examines complaints, can impose interim measures, cancel decisions and impose fines. Deadlines for objections are short, so a supplier must act quickly. The Supreme Audit Office and EU auditors check the use of public money, particularly where EU funds are involved, which links to EU funds for Czech businesses.

These institutions belong to the wider state structure explained in how the Czech state is organised.

This is a general explainer, not legal or tax advice.