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content of offers. Pursuant to Art.5 of the Ordinance 2016, the
public contracting authority can provide such a key either via the
profile of the public contracting authority, or the internet page or
by sending upon request. The communications between the
contracting authority and potential contractors are done either
while using hardcopies or electronic versions of documents. The
electronization of public procurement is a process requiring full
electronic communications with electronic signatures, including
the electronic submission of bids. The general rule is that the
public contracting authority has the duty to conduct electronic
communications and exceptions, such as public procurement for
low value goods or services, are set by Art.211 of the
Trustworthiness Act. Therefore, since 2018 when the Act 2016
took effect, Czech public procurement authorities have to sign
such electronic documents while using a qualified electronic
signature (Art.5 and Art.19 Trustworthiness Act). This qualified
electronic signature is established by a qualified instrument
equipped with an appropriate qualified certificate, unless the law
states otherwise.
Basically, there are three types of electronic signatures – a
qualified electronic signature, an advanced electronic signature
and a simple electronic signature (Art.5 – Art.7 Trustworthiness
Act). The highest type is the qualified electronic signature,
which is created by a qualified electronic signature creation
device, and which is based on a qualified certificate for
electronic signatures generated by appropriate IS/IT and
hardware devices (Art.3 eIDAS Regulation, Art.5
Trustworthiness Act). In order to create the advanced electronic
signature, it is necessary to use encryption and a qualified digital
certificate, which is generated by the special hardware
instruments and is linked to the qualified trust service provider.
Only the qualified electronic signature is based on the eIDAS
Regulation equivalent to a handwritten signature, i.e. it generates
the same legal effects in the entire EU, see Art. 25 of the eIDAS
Regulation. The qualified electronic signature has the legal effect
of a handwritten signed document is unambiguously linked to
the signing person, allows the identification of the signatory with
a high level of trustworthiness and is so attached to the
concerned document that any future tampering or modification
of such a document or its data can be discovered by the use of an
appropriate crypto algorithm and other standards. In order to
create a qualified electronic signature, potential contractors and
bidders need to have an issued qualified certificate, private key
to be used while signing electronic documents and certified
instruments for the creation of such signatures. These certified
instruments can be certified chip cards, tokens or certified HSM
moduls (external hardware equipment) or remote services for
signing via a selected intermediary.
4.2 Czech case study - Questionnaire investigation
At the very heart of the practical part of this paper is the Czech
case study, based on the questionnaire investigation addressing
the awareness and perception of the modernized electronic
public procurement. This is achieved while focusing on the
confirmation or rejection of the three hypotheses:
H1 – Respondents are aware about the Initiative of the EU and
its goal to increase the effectiveness, efficiency and
sustainability of the public procurement?
H2 – The Initiative of the EU will not have an impact on
competition between businesses?
H3 - Introduction of electronic communication in public
procurement is perceived positively.
As indicated above, the practical part of this paper is built upon
the Czech case study with the questionnaire investigation for
which was used the method of a questionnaire search and its
consequent assessment by the method of categorial data by the
software program Statistika, by the method of dependence of
qualitative signs and Pearson´s chi-square, where two
dependences are analyzed by the static analysis of tables
frequency. The level of significance was set as
α=0,05. The
conditions for the use of the chi-square were satisfied (n>40).
For the confirmation or rejection of each of the set hypotheses,
there was created a supportive contingency table 2x2 to observe
the dependence between two qualitative signs. Based on
contingency tables, there is performed the test of dependency
which will be performed to assess the relationship between two
values. The set null hypothesis is tested as the hypothesis of the
independency H0. Within the created contingency tables 2x2,
there is observed the relationship between two qualitative
variables where each variable has only two categories.
Categories of the respondents were determined by the number of
employees of the respondents. The questionnaire investigation
was made in the Czech Republic while working with 60 pre-
selected businesses which compete for public procurements, i.e.
are bidders. Since 42 of them have completed the questionnaire,
the conditions for using the chi-square were satisfied.
Pursuant to H1, respondents are aware about the Initiative of the
EU and its goal to increase the effectiveness, efficiency and
sustainability of the public procurement. H0 means that between
the indicated signs there does not exist the dependency, i.e. the
respondents are not aware about the Initiative of the European
Commission. The feedback of respondents regarding H1 is
included in Table 1.
Table 1: contingency table for H1
Number of
employees
Yes, they are
aware
No, they are
not aware
Total
0-49
employees
5
22
27
50 or more
employees
5
10
15
Total
10
32
42
Source: Prepared by authors
The value of the Pearson chi-square is X
2
= 1.166. The level of
significance is
α=0,05, i.e. X
2
0,05 (1)
= 3,841. Since the value X
2
<
X
2
0,05 (1),
H
0
– the null hypothesis is confirmed. This means that
between the indicated signs there does not exist the dependency,
i.e. the respondents are not aware about the Initiative of the EU
and its goal to increase the effectiveness, efficiency and
sustainability of the public procurement. Therefore, H1 is
rejected. All respondents who indicated their lack of awareness
about the Initiative were informed about it so that they could
fully participate to address H2 and H3.
Pursuant to H2, the Initiative of the EU will not have an impact
on competition between businesses? H0 means that between the
indicated signs there does not exist the dependency, i.e. the
Initiative will have an impact on the competition between
businesses. The feedback of respondents regarding H2 is
included in Table 2.
Table 2: contingency table for H2
Number of
employees
Yes, it will not
have an impact
No, it will
have an impact
Total
0-49
employees
15
12
27
50 or more
employees
10
5
15
Total
25
17
42
Source: Prepared by authors
The value of the Pearson chi-square is X
2
= 0,494. The level of
significance is
α=0,05, i.e. X
2
0,05 (1)
= 3,841. Since the value X
2
<
X
2
0,05 (1),
H
0
– the null hypothesis is confirmed. This means that
between the indicated signs there does not exist the dependency,
i.e. the Initiative of the EU will have an impact on the
competition between businesses and H2 is rejected.
Pursuant to H3, the introduction of electronic communication in
public procurement is perceived positively. H0 means that
between the indicated signs there does not exist the dependency,
i.e. the introduction of the electronic communication in public
procurement is not perceived positively. The feedback of
respondents regarding H3 is included in Table 3.
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