Empirical research of multi-criteria decision making methods used to evaluate bids for public contracts in the Czech Republic

Multi‐criteria decision making methods are used to select the best bids for public contracts. Due to strict legal regulations, only a few methods are possible to use for public contracts. This paper analyses multi‐criteria decision making methods and their suitability for public contracts. Research performed in the Czech Republic in 2013 found that contracting authorities strongly prefer to use the weighted sum approach in connection with one type of transformation for quantitative criteria. They treat all criteria with the same value functions that are convex for minimising criteria and linear for maximising. In 60% of criteria, the contracting authorities limited the bidders in admissible values of criteria or defined the reference value.