Brussels, 13/07/2016 (Agence Europe) - The European Court of Auditors explained in a report published on Wednesday 13 July that the European institutions can do more to facilitate access to their public procurement markets.
The EU's auditing body recommends that the EU institutions establish an electronic one-stop shop for their purchasing. Economic operators could interact with the European institutions to find all the information they need in a single website. The Court says tender procedures could be managed by the intermediary of a one-stop shop, including information about the applicable rules, business opportunities, the relevant market documents, submissions of tender offers and any other exchanges between the EU institutions and economic operators.
In the European Union, public procurement is covered by rules to remove obstacles and open up markets in a transparent, non-discriminatory manner in order to encourage competition. The aim of tender procedures is to extend the range of potential contractors for public bodies, which will lead to better use of resources and the opening of business opportunities for companies.
“We found that the management and control arrangements of the EU institutions are robust and in general mitigate the risk of errors which could otherwise adversely affect the possibility for economic operators to participate and their fair treatment,” explains the Court's report. Few suspect cases are reported to the EU's anti-fraud office, OLAF, which suggests that there are few cases of serious fraud or irregularities in this domain.
In order to demonstrate the accessibility of their public markets and monitor them, the European Union institutions need information about the level of participation of economic operators in their tender procedures. Most EU institutions fail to systematically measure the level of participation in their tender procedures. Of the bodies monitored by the Court of Auditors, only the European Commission's Joint Research Centre compiles full statistics. The others satisfy the minimum requirement of indicating the number of offers received in the online notices of public contract awards on the TED website (Tenders Electronic Daily).
The Court notes in its report, “In 2014 the European Parliament and the Council adopted reformed directives to render procurement easier and administratively less burdensome, in particular with a view to increasing participation of small and medium sized enterprises” (EUROPE 11017). “However we found that, when revising their own procurement rules in 2015, the EU institutions did not facilitate such access by simplifying rules and clarifying grey areas to the fullest possible extent.” For example, says the Court, contracts could have been divided into separate lots more frequently in order to stimulate participation, which would have had a positive effect in terms of access for economic operators such as SMEs.
“Not all procedural choices fostered competition on the broadest possible basis. Most EU institutions had no policy to undertake market consultation prior to starting the formal procurement procedure,” states the Court.
Finally, economic operators which consider that they have been unfairly treated find it difficult to obtain a rapid review of their complaints and compensation for damages. Information on the outcome of the EU institutions' procurement activities is not accessible in a way that allows effective monitoring by the public, regrets the Court.
Purchases by the main EU institutions, namely the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Council and the European Central Bank, totalled some €4 billion in 2014. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)