1. What is changing in public contracting?
Integrity Pact Stakeholder Event
Bucharest, 14 December 2017
Pascal Boijmans
DG Regional and Urban Policy
Head of Unit "Competence Centre for Administrative Capacity Building; Solidarity Fund"

2. Quality of government in EU regions, 2017
The quality and impartiality of public services is uneven
Ease of doing business can be improved
E-Government can help
Source: 7th Cohesion Report "My Region, My Europe, Our Future"

3. 3 October 2017 - adoption of Public Procurement Package
Communication on Public Procurement - Commission's strategy for improving PP;
Communication on a voluntary ex-ante mechanism for large infrastructure projects
Recommendation on professionalisation of public procurement to Member States;
Draft guidance document on procurement of innovation – launch of targeted consultation.

4. Key political messages
PP is a strategic area for policy makers.
Not just an administrative process, but an opportunity to deliver value for public money (14% of GDP!).
A partnership to improve the PP in practice. Beyond 2014 legal reform, improvement needs smart implementation of the new rules.
The Commission is ready to play its part.
We will develop a range of support tools, (guidelines, best practices) for authorities.
6 priority areas for improving PP in practice.

5. 6 priority areas for improving PP
1. Wider uptake of strategic procurement
2. Professionalising public buyers
3. Increase access to procurement markets
A high level of professionalisation is a pre-condition to take full advantage of the potential of public procurement as a lever of growth.
The goal is to improve the overall competence of public procurers. Public procurement is increasingly complex and interdisciplinary. Procurers have to understand not only the legal framework, but also the business and organisational needs, as well as integrate new technological developments and manage risks.
The Recommendation does not impose a “one-size-fit-all” model but provides a framework for a holistic approach to professionalisation of public procurement.
The Recommendation covers 3 aspects:
encouraging Member States to develop strategies at national and regional levels;
improving the training and career incentives of public buyers, to attract and retain the right people with the right set of skills
ensuring that public buyers are equipped with the right tools and support to act with the greatest professionalism- DG GROW created e-Competence Centre: tools and information to help public buyers get value for money and better policy outcomes for citizens
1. Wider uptake of strategic procurement
55% of tenders use lowest price only
Boost green, social and innovative procurement through guidance and best practices
Support for strategic sectors (IT, health, construction)
2. Professionalising public buyers
Encourage Member States to develop professionalisation strategies
Ensure buyers have the needed skills and competences
Provide necessary tools and support
3. Increase access to procurement markets
SMEs win only 45% of contracts
Make PP more attractive for companies, also cross border
Open international procurement markets

6. 6 priority areas for improving PP
4. Improving transparency, integrity, data
5. Boosting the digital transformation of PP
6. Cooperating to procure together
4. Improving transparency, integrity, data
The ongoing digital transformation has great potential to improve the collection, storage and use of PP data, for transparency and policy making purposes, as well as, warning systems to signal and tackle corruption in PP;
Better and more accessible data on procurement should be made available as it opens a wide range of opportunities to assess better performance of procurement policies, optimise the interaction between public procurement systems and shape future strategic decisions.
Setting-up contract registers is strongly recommended (use of Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)!)
Contract registries are important not only for transparency, but also as a means of monitoring and controlling public expenditure. Its potential is fully exploited when it includes information on procedures both above and below the EU thresholds.
Enable effective reporting of corruption and protecting whistleblowers
5. Boosting the digital transformation of PP
Legal obligation from October 2018, but real benefits if all steps of PP process are digitalised
Roll-out of eProcurement is slow
Continue to provide technical & financial support to MS
It is planned that in 2018 through the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) the Commission will continue to support the activities for implementation of eCertis, ESPD and eTendering, as well as, implementation of a contract register.
6. Cooperating to procure together
Only 11% of procedures through cooperative PP
More cooperation leads to better outcomes
Joint procurement by multiple MS facilitated

7. Public Procurement Action Plan
elaborated by the ESIF DGs and DG GROW, together with the EIB - current plan contains 18 actions ( follow-up actions)
The intervention strands:
Compliance with legislative rules set up through the Directives;
Stimulating efficiency and transparency;
Strategic outlook.
DG REGIO is actively contributing to the PP AP with several actions initiated and implemented by us.
To coordinate actions more effectively, the ESIF DGs and DG GROW, together with the EIB elaborated Public Procurement Action Plan
The current Plan contains 18 actions ( follow-up actions)
Focus on preventive actions!
Spread knowledge of EU PP rules at the level of all stakeholders
Reinforce administrative capacity
Better preparation of tenders and projects
Reduce error rate

8. Study on PP administrative capacity
Overview of good practices and
recommendations on PP
to the EC and MS (2016)
Available at:
+ 28 country profiles
Stages and outputs:
Desk review of all 28 MS
Field visits in 15 MS
Case studies of reform: PT and CZ
On-line survey with practitioners in all 28 MS
Good practices and recommendations in final report (Part I)
28 Country profiles in Part II

9. Follow up Study: on PP good practice sharing across the EU
Call for country
adopters
2) Feasibility
assessment
In progress
3) Step-by-step
roadmaps
1) E-library of good practices*
Completed
For one fiche in the e-library a good practice defined at the conceptual level rather than in reference to a specific MS example
Stages and outputs:
Desk review of all 28 MS
Field visits in 15 MS
Case studies of reform: PT and CZ
On-line survey with practitioners in all 28 MS
Good practices and recommendations in final report (Part I)
28 Country profiles in Part II
To be launched *

10. Co-operation with OECD
Completed ( ):
Assistance to Bulgarian authorities: development and implementation of a PP training programme;
Assistance to Slovak Republic authorities: development of National e-Procurement strategy, Training action plan and assessment of the effectiveness of ex-ante controls.
In preparation (launch 2018):
REGIO joint project with OECD on Strategic Procurement:
overall objective of the pilot project is to encourage the uptake of strategic procurement in actions under Operational Programmes co-financed by ESIF
1. Identify procurement initiatives in Member States which would highly benefit from strategic approaches
2. Select a representative sample and help contracting and managing authorities to implement and promote strategic procurement procedures
3. Summarize the experiences and lessons learned; develop guidance & tools needed and build relevant knowledge and skills;
4. Provide recommendations and follow-up actions for further and wider promotion of strategic procurement for projects co-financed by ESI Funds.

11. Public Procurement Guidance for Practitioners
Guidance structured around the 6 main stages of a public procurement process based on list of 25 most common errors
Toolkit of resources addressing specific topics with concrete examples, checklist, links
Updated version of the Guidance document in English is READY! (includes key changes by new PP Directive and users' feedback)
Target Audience is “Procurement Officer” managing day-to-day procurement activities
Purpose support to avoid the steps that lead to errors and to adopt good practices
Living document – guidance and accompanying toolkit should be regularly updated
It is not a legal interpretation of the Directives!
Translated into all EU languages!

12. TAIEX-REGIO PEER 2 PEER
Instrument to facilitate exchange of experience among Member States on ERDF and CF issues
What is an exchange?
Expert missions
Study visits
Workshops
Up to 5 Days
Up to 2 Days

13. TAIEX-REGIO PEER 2 PEER Examples of exchanges on PP
Slovakia: Experts from Portugal and Poland on Coordination
Authorities: Central Coordination Body and PP Office
Coordination of public procurement
Management verifications, conflict of interest, standard documents
Bulgaria: Workshop with experts from IT, AT, HR, FI
Authority: Public Procurement Agency
Strengthening the administrative capacity of bodies, professionalism
Central Purchasing Bodies (CPBs), e-proc, framework agreements
Croatia: Workshop and Study Visit to ES and EE
Authority: Ministry for Regional Development
PP in MCS: verifications during the project implementation
Methodology for sampling for PP control and system level verification

14. Training for MS experts
a series of training events targeting national and regional authorities responsible for the management of the Structural and Cohesion Funds. Training Modules 1-5.
Training Module No 5. Public Procurement – on December 2017 in Brussels.
Topics:
European PP, recent case law in PP;
Strategic procurement in ESI programmes;
Innovative and socially responsible procurement;
Green PP;
Procurement, innovation and sustainability.
Training material (incl. podcasts) is available on the following website:
More trainings will be organized in 2018.
The new rules and legislation governing the EU Cohesion Policy investments for were adopted in December The new legislative framework introduced a number of changes as compared to the previous round. In order to support the EU Member States in interpreting and applying the new regulatory requirements, the European Commission has been organising a series of training events targeting national and regional authorities responsible for the management of the Structural and Cohesion Funds.
Programme implementation, ensuring greater focus on results;
Management and control; management verifications;
Ensuring result-orintation on OPs: Programme managment, Project Selection, Monitoring, Reporting and Evaluation;
State Aid;
Public Procurement

15. Measuring performance of Public Procurement Limited competition
Too many contracts for single bidders
Not always collusion
Low value for money?
More e-procurement
Better information
More offers from outside the country
Source: 7th Cohesion Report

16. DG GROW's e-Competence Centre
Thank you!
You can contact us at:
Public procurement on InfoRegio "Improving investment"
TAIEX REGIO PEER 2 PEER:
DG GROW's e-Competence Centre