This chapter provides an overview of the public procurement landscape in Slovenia, which remains highly fragmented, with many contracting authorities that are either inactive or award only a limited number of contracts. Collaborative approaches such as joint procurement are still used only to a limited extent, indicating significant untapped potential. The analysis highlights opportunities to improve efficiency and value for money through greater collaboration.
Enhancing Public Procurement through Collaboration in Slovenia
The Way Forward
Abstract
The government of Slovenia aims at promoting collaborative public procurement approaches at the subnational level to decrease administrative burden and increase efficiency of public procurement. Indeed, collaborative approaches in public procurement such as joint procurement, centralised purchasing, and community of practices have the potential to improve efficiency and effectiveness of public procurement through various benefits. Collaborative public procurement approaches can benefit contracting authorities, in particular, smaller ones at subnational level with limited capacity and with less frequency of carrying out public procurement procedures.
Slovenia is a decentralised unitary state composed of 212 municipalities, 11 of which are considered as city. For statistical purposes, the country is divided into 12 statistical regions, but they have no administrative function. (European Commission, n.d.[1]) It is estimated that there are approximately 3 000 contracting authorities in Slovenia. (European Commission, 2016[2])
Data on awarded contracts available at the national public procurement portal (enarocanje.si) show that there is large opportunity for promoting collaborative approaches in public procurement in Slovenia (see Table 1.1). To illustrate this through data analysis, the following sections analyse (i) the share of contracting authorities in terms of number of awarded contracts in one year (2024) and five years (2020 – 2024) and (ii) the evolution of share of joint procurement during the five years (2020 – 2024).
Source: Data extracted from the national public procurement portal
Figure 1.1 shows the share of contracting authorities in terms of number of awarded contracts in 2024. In 2024, 65.5% of contracting authorities in Slovenia (1 964 out of 3 000 contracting authorities) did not award a contract at all. 82% of contracting authorities (2 477 out of 3 000 contracting authorities) awarded 5 contracts or less.
Note: Based on the estimation that there are 3 000 contracting authorities in Slovenia
Source: Prepared by the author based on data on contracts awarded in 2024
This tendency remains unchanged when the same analysis is carried out for the five years (2020 – 2024). Figure 1.2 shows the share of contracting authorities in terms of the number of awarded contracts during a five-year period (2020 - 2024). During this period, 41.3% of contracting authorities in Slovenia (1 239 out of 3 000 contracting authorities) did not award a contract at all. 59% of contracting authorities (1 772 out of 3 000 contracting authorities) awarded 5 contracts or less.
Note: Based on the estimation that there are 3 000 contracting authorities in Slovenia
Source: Prepared by the author based on data on contracts awarded during a five-year period (2020 – 2024)
Figure 1.3 shows the evolution of contracts awarded through joint procurement, one of the most typical collaborative public procurement approaches. During a five-year period (2020 – 2024), contracts awarded through joint procurement accounted for 4.1% of the total number of awarded contracts and 9.4% of the total value during the five-year period (2020 – 2024).
Source: Data on contracts awarded during a five-year period (2020 – 2024)
According to the Single Market and Competitiveness Scoreboard of the European Commission, the number of procurement procedures carried out through joint procurement accounted for 5% of the total number of procedures above the EU threshold procedures in Slovenia in 2024. This is below the targeted satisfactory performance for this indicator (10% or more), placing Slovenia at 18th among the 30 countries including 27 EU Member States and 3 states of the European Economic Area (EEA). Top performers are Denmark (21%), Estonia (20%), Finland (20%) and Latvia (20%). (European Commission, n.d.[3]) Nonetheless, not all types of procurement are suitable for joint procurement, but the lower rate implies the missed opportunities and therefore the room for the potential improvement for using joint procurement more actively in Slovenia.
The data analysis of this chapter shows the low procurement volume for a significant number of contracting authorities in Slovenia, and a low uptake of joint procurement. This could potentially build a case for promoting collaborative approaches in public procurement in Slovenia. Taking this into account, this report analyses the potential of implementing collaborative public procurement approaches at subnational level of Slovenia and provides the government of Slovenia with recommendations on how to foster collaborative public procurement approaches in Slovenia. Chapter 2 provides an overview of collaborative approaches, their benefits and drawbacks, and describes four types of collaborative approaches in public procurement in detail, including: (i) centralised purchasing; (ii) joint procurement; (iii) co-ordinated procurement; and (iv) knowledge sharing through communities of practice. Based on the previous chapters, Chapter 3 proposes recommendations and ways forward that Slovenia could consider in order to leverage collaborative approaches in public procurement at the subnational level, focusing on strengthening further centralised purchasing and establishing communities of practice to facilitate collaboration.
References
[2] European Commission (2016), Public procurement - A Study on administrative capacity in the EU: Slovenia Country Profile, http://www.e-narocanje.si/?podrocje=portal (accessed on 4 July 2024).
[1] European Commission (n.d.), Division of Powers, https://portal.cor.europa.eu/divisionpowers/Pages/Slovenia.aspx (accessed on 15 July 2024).
[3] European Commission (n.d.), The Single Market and Competitiveness Scoreboard, https://single-market-scoreboard.ec.europa.eu/business-framework-conditions/public-procurement_en (accessed on 14 February 2025).