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Efficient spending of public money is a crucial requirement of public procurement. This requirement is even more important in the case of public works contracts since construction projects are usually very costly. Accordingly, public authorities should manage the procurement process in an efficient way. The aim of this paper is to analyse municipal procurement practices focusing on small-scale public contracts for construction works. The Czech Republic is the study area for this analysis. Data concerning procurement practices were collected through a questionnaire survey and on the basis of available internal municipal directives that govern the procurement process. The results show that a majority of municipalities use internal directives and specify financial categories for small-scale public contracts. It has also been found that the majority of municipalities contract external consulting companies for specific contracts or subsidised public contracts. Directives usually concern the issue of responsibility and the approval procedure related to the public contract. Based on the research findings, general recommendations for awarding public contracts have been formulated. These findings can potentially contribute to the dissemination of best practices among contracting authorities in the Czech Republic.

Many construction projects are realized with public subsidy, e.g. subsidies from the European Union, state budget and/ or municipal resources. The reimbursement of the subsidy depends on a number of conditions, such as completion of the project in time or compliance with operation conditions. The purpose of this research is to seek causes of subsidy risk related to construction projects. In particular, research aims at addressing causes that may lead to the loss of subsidy, reduction of subsidy and/or a penalty payment. Research is conducted as a case study of selected construction projects and the Czech Republic is chosen as a study area. Set of data representing 20 construction projects which faced the threat of reduction or loss of subsidy was collected from available sources and results represent the spectrum of identified risk causes and their distribution in the different phases of the project life cycle and according to the risk source breakdown structure. From managerial perspective, output of this research may serve as a support for investors who plan to apply for public subsidy for their construction projects. Several recommendations for subsidy risk avoidance have been proposed at the end of the paper.