Abstract Public procurement is a crucial activity undertaken by the public sector. However, public procurement entails a wide range of transaction costs. While many papers focus on the ex-ante transaction costs, it is equally important to evaluate the types of ex-post transaction costs. The disputes stemming from conflicts between procuring authorities and proposers often bring additional costs to both parties. One of the ways to ensure that the procuring authority wins the dispute is using the services of an external law firm to represent the procuring authority in the review process. The aim of the paper is to examine the extent of the use of external law services in the public-procurement review process by procuring authorities and proposers in Slovakia and in the Czech Republic. The focus is also on the impact the use of external law firms in the review process may have on the length of the review process and the outcome of the dispute. Our results suggest that while the use of the external law firm may lead to a higher success rate of the review process on the side of a procuring authority, the same does not apply to proposers. There were no conclusive findings regarding the impact of the outsourcing on the length of the review process.

中文翻译：

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捷克共和国和斯洛伐克的交易成本，外包和公共采购审核流程

摘要公共采购是公共部门开展的重要活动。但是，公共采购需要广泛的交易成本。尽管许多论文都关注事前交易成本，但评估事后交易成本的类型也同样重要。采购当局与提案人之间的冲突引起的纠纷通常会给双方带来额外的费用。确保采购部门胜诉的方法之一是使用外部律师事务所的服务在审查过程中代表采购部门。本文的目的是研究斯洛伐克和捷克共和国的采购当局和提议者在公共采购审查过程中使用外部法律服务的程度。重点还在于在审核过程中使用外部律师事务所可能会对审核过程的持续时间和争议结果产生影响。我们的结果表明，尽管使用外部律师事务所可能会导致采购当局方面的审核过程获得更高的成功率，但对提议人而言并不适用。关于外包对审查过程的持续时间的影响，没有结论性的结论。