This chapter describes the current state of play of innovation procurement in Croatia focusing on the two enabling elements of innovation procurement: capacity-building system and stakeholder engagement. The chapter starts by describing the results of the self-assessment survey which evaluated the current capability level of public procurement officials in Croatia to carry out innovation procurement. Then, the chapter overviews the capacity-building system of innovation procurement including the training modules, and the manual developed based on the self-assessment results. It also discusses the potential of reinforcing the role of HAMAG-BICRO as a competence centre. Lastly, the chapter describes the relevance of mobilising key stakeholders such as economic operators, remedy bodies and control bodies to promote the uptake of innovation procurement in Croatia.
Innovation Procurement in Croatia
Abstract
The previous chapter discussed three out of five enabling factors of innovation procurement: regulatory and institutional frameworks, strategies, and monitoring system of innovation procurement. This chapter will focus on the rest of the two enabling elements of innovation procurement: capacity-building system and stakeholder engagement.
This section discusses the capacity-building system of innovation procurement in Croatia. Indeed, the lack of a dedicated capacity-building system was identified as the biggest obstacle to promoting the uptake of innovation procurement in Croatia, according to the EC report The strategic use of public procurement for innovation in the digital economy (European Commission, 2021[1]) as well as the OECD survey on innovation procurement carried out in 2023, involving 75 public procurement officials in 11 distinct public entities.
The first part of this section overviews the key takeaways from the assessment results of ProcurCompEU survey. The second part of this section describes the capacity-building system (training programme and manual) which was developed under the “Supporting the implementation of innovation procurement in Croatia” project based on the ProcurCompEU survey result. Finally, the third part of this section proposes ways forward that Croatia could consider in order to strengthen the capacity-building system of innovation procurement in Croatia.
3.1.1. Assessment of the capability: Key takeaways from ProcurCompEU survey
This section presents the key takeaways and results of the survey of the European competency framework for public procurement professionals (ProcurCompEU). The survey, conducted in 2023 with 75 procurement officials across 11 public entities in Croatia, aimed to assess their current competency levels in innovation procurement.
ProcurCompEU as a tool to assess the capacity level
Identifying and assessing current gaps in capacities and skills of the public procurement workforce is useful to develop a sound professionalisation strategy and a solid capacity-building system. The European competency framework for public procurement professionals, called ProcurCompEU, is a practical tool to facilitate these assessments. ProcurCompEU was launched by the European Commission in December 2020, in order to support the professionalisation agenda in public procurement. ProcurCompEU provides practical tools such as a competency matrix including 30 key competences for public buyers, a self-assessment tool, and a generic training curriculum (See Box 3.1).
ProcurCompEU is a tool designed by the European Commission to support the professionalisation of public procurement. ProcurCompEU consists of three elements:
Competency Matrix, which defines 30 procurement-related and soft competences along four proficiency levels (basic, intermediate, advanced and expert).
Self-Assessment Tool that allows users to set targets for the different competences and assess their proficiency levels against them and identify any gaps.
Generic training curriculum which lists all learning outcomes that public procurement professionals should know and be able to demonstrate after having attended a training for a certain proficiency level.
The Competency Matrix describes 30 competences (knowledge, skills and attitudes) that public procurement professionals should demonstrate in order to perform their job effectively and efficiently, and carry out public procurement procedures that bring value for money. The competences are grouped in two main categories: procurement specific competences, and soft competences. The categories are then divided into six clusters, three per category:
Procurement-specific competences (19 competences):
Horizontal: 9 competences applicable to all stages of the public procurement lifecycle.
Pre-award: 6 competences required to perform all the tasks and activities taking place before the award of a public contract.
Post-award: 4 competences necessary for the contract management after the award of a public contract.
Soft competences (11 competences):
Personal: 4 competences on behaviours, skills and attributes that public procurement professionals should possess, as well as the mind-set that they should display according to their job profile.
People: 3 competences enabling public procurement professionals to interact and cooperate with other professionals, and to do so in the most professional manner.
Performance: 4 competences public procurement professionals need to have in order to increase value for money in public procurement procedures.
Each competence is described along four proficiency levels based on the breadth of knowledge and skills: Basic, Intermediate, Advanced, and Expert.
The ProcurCompEU Self-Assessment Tool is composed of several key elements:
A self-assessment questionnaire
Templates for job profiles
A calculation tool for computing individual and organisational assessment results.
The ProcurCompEU Generic Training Curriculum lists all learning outcomes that public procurement professionals should know and be able to demonstrate after having attended a training for a certain proficiency level.
ProcurCompEU is a quite flexible, voluntary and customisable tool. Getting inputs from ProcurCompEU does not require using each and every component of the framework, nor does it require the use of each and every competence defined in the ProcurCompEU Competency Matrix.
Source: (European Commission, 2020[2])
Tailoring ProcurCompEU survey structure to the Croatian context
30 competences of the ProcurCompEU Competency Matrix were adapted for the purpose of carrying out the survey for Croatia with slight adjustments such as dividing the competence C13 Technical specifications into C13-1 Technical specifications and C13-2 Evaluation criteria. The ProcurCompEU survey was prepared in the EC digital survey platform (EUSurvey) by adapting the standardised survey questionnaire of ProcurCompEU to the Croatian context. 75 officials from 11 public entities participated in the survey.
The survey aimed at helping each participant to identify their current capability level as well as competences that need more capacity building, by:
Measuring the organisational maturity of participants by ranking each of the 30 competences as follows:
Calculating the average score of all the participants (by all the 75 participants).
Calculating the average score of all the participants (by each public entity in case of 5 participants or more).
Collecting feedback on capacity-building needs of the participants.
Collect information on the perception of innovation procurement.
The survey consisted of five sections:
Section I General questions: Information on the respondent such as the current position and experiences in public procurement.
Section II Public procurement competences: Self-assessment of the current level for the 19 procurement specific competences.
Section III Soft competences: Self-assessment of the current level for the 11 soft competences.
Section IV Feedback on capacity-building needs: Selection of top 3 competences that need more capability-building activities in the opinion of the respondent.
Section V Perception on innovation procurement: Information on perception of innovation procurement.
In Section II and III, the participants were requested to self-assess their proficiency levels of knowledge and skills for 30 competences from the following levels that were converted to points (0 to 4):
Less than basic: 0 point
Basic: 1 point
Intermediary: 2 points
Advanced: 3 points
Expert: 4 points
A webinar to launch the survey was organised by the OECD on May 2, 2023, in order to explain the purpose and structure of the exercise to the participants. The survey was closed on June 14, 2023, and the analysis result was shared in July 2023.
The average public procurement practitioner in Croatia is experienced, but most of them did not receive dedicated training on innovation procurement
This section shows the basic profiles of the 75 officials that participated in the survey from the 11 public entities. (See Table 3.1)
Source: ProcurCompEU survey result for 11 public entities in Croatia (July 2023)
The following presents the average profile of a public procurement practitioner in Croatia:
80% (60 out of 75) of participants work full-time on public procurement.
The average experience in the participants’ current position is 68 months (5.7 years).
The average experience of the participants in public procurement is 139 months (11.6 years).
75% (61 out of 75) of participants hold a national certification of public procurement issued by MINGO, among whom 59% were certified before 2015.
29% (22 out of 75) of participants participated in a training related to innovation procurement.
A need to upskill the procurement workforce on elements supporting innovation procurement and its combination with other broader policy objectives
The OECD shared the key findings from the analysis of the aggregated self-assessment results of the 75 participants with MINGO and HAMAG-BICRO on July 4, 2023, which were then disseminated to the participants by MINGO. At the same time, the survey results at organisational level were individually sent by the OECD to the five participating public entities which had five participants or more (Central State Office for Central Public Procurement, Croatian National Electricity Company, Rijeka City, MINGO and HAMAG-BICRO), in order to maintain the confidentiality of their individual results. This section only presents the key findings of the aggregated results of the 75 participants, which can be considered sufficient to meet the objective of identifying the competences that need more capacity building on a country-wide level.
The total average score regarding the 30 competences of all 75 participants was 2.24. The total average score of procurement-specific competences (No. 1-19) amounted to 2.26, while the score for soft competences (No. 20-30) was 2.20. Figure 3.1 shows that the capacity level increases proportionally with more professional experiences in public procurement.
Source: ProcurCompEU survey results for 11 public entities in Croatia (July 2023)
Figure 3.2 shows the average score of all 75 participants by competence in ascending order. The self-assessment results identified C6 (Innovation Procurement) as the weakest competence among all participants, with a lowest average score of 1.25, followed by C19 (Conflict resolution / mediation), C17 (Certification and payment), C5 (Sustainable procurement) and C9 (Negotiations). However, the low average score for C17 (Certification and payment) can be explained by the fact that many of the participants are not in charge of the tasks related to payment in their daily work.
Note: C1 Planning, C2 Lifecycle, C3 Legislation, C4 e-Procurement and other IT tools, C5 Sustainable procurement, C6 Innovation procurement, C7 Category specific, C8 Supplier management, C9 Negotiations, C10 Needs assessment, C11 Market analysis & engagement, C12 Procurement strategy, C13-1 Technical specifications, C13-2 Evaluation criteria, C14 Tender documentation, C15 Tender evaluation, C16 Contract management, C17 Certification and payment, C18 Reporting and evaluation, C19 Conflict resolution / mediation, C20 Adaptability and modernisation, C21 Analytical and critical thinking, C22 Communication, C23 Ethics and compliance, C24 Collaboration, C25 Stakeholder relationship management, C26 Team management and leadership, C27 Organisational awareness, C28 Project management, C29 Performance orientation, C30 Risk management and internal control
Source: ProcurCompEU survey results for 11 public entities in Croatia (July 2023)
In addition to the self-assessment exercise, all the participants were requested to select the top three competences, which, in their view, require more methodological assistance (such as training, guidelines, manuals etc). Figure 3.3 presents the competences most identified as the top priority for requiring additional assistance, listed in descending order.
Note: % of the participants that selected each competence as the first priority competence that requires more methodological assistance.
For example, 19 out of 75 participants (25%) selected C6 (Innovation procurement) as the first priority competence that requires more methodological assistance.
Source: ProcurCompEU survey results for 11 public entities in Croatia (July 2023)
C6 (Innovation procurement) was selected by most participants as the 1st priority competence that requires further methodological assistance, followed by C5 (Sustainable procurement), C4 (e-Procurement and other IT tools), C3 (Legislation) and C13-1 (Technical specifications), and C28 (Project management). All of the top 10 competences are procurement-specific ones except C28 (Project management). Figure 3.4 shows competences identified by most participants as the ones that require more methodological assistance, taking into account the 1st to 3rd choices.
Note: Each participant was requested to select 1st to 3rd competence that requires more methodological assistance. Then, the result was summed up after the conversion in accordance with the following scoring rule: 1st priority (greatest challenge) = 3 points, 2nd priority = 2 points, 3rd priority = 1 points. Finally, the total score of each competence was divided by the potential maximum score (in this case, 225 points: 3 points X 75 participants) For example, the converted score of C6 was 100 points, which were divided by 225 points to obtain 44.4%.
Source: ProcurCompEU survey results for 11 public entities in Croatia (July 2023)
The aggregated results for the 1st to 3rd priorities remain similar to the ones for the 1st priority only. C6 (Innovation procurement) was identified by most participants as the competence that requires more methodological assistance, followed by C5 (Sustainable procurement), C4 (e-Procurement and other IT tools) and C11 (Market analysis & engagement) and C13-1 (Technical specifications). 8 out of the top 10 competences are procurement-specific ones.
These results imply that participants need to develop their skills not only on innovation procurement, but also on cross-cutting procurement techniques across the procurement lifecycle. It therefore advocates for the development of a comprehensive training programme covering the entire innovation procurement lifecycle. Table 3.2lists the ten competences based on the self-assessment and the training needs.
Source: ProcurCompEU survey results for 11 public entities in Croatia (July 2023)
3.1.2. Developing a dedicated capacity-building programme for innovation procurement
The ProcurCompEU survey results have confirmed that the lack of capacity is the biggest challenge for public procurement officials to implement innovation procurement, which was also pointed out by the EC report The strategic use of public procurement for innovation in the digital economy. (European Commission, 2021[1])
According to the ProcurCompEU survey results, 5% (4 out of 75) of survey participants have carried out innovation procurement in the past, while 28% (21 out of 75) have never considered the possibility of carrying out innovation procurement. 67% (50 out of 75) of survey participants have considered the possibility of carrying out innovation procurement but have decided not to do so.
Note: No participant selected the response “Currently, I am using innovation procurement”.
Source: ProcurCompEU survey results for 11 public entities in Croatia (July 2023)
The main reason behind the difficulty of implementing innovation procurement identified by survey respondents is the lack of the capacity-building programme (e.g. manual and training), which is closely related to the second biggest challenge, i.e. lack of adequate capacity to undertake this procedure, and to the third biggest challenge, lack of understanding of the relevance of innovation procurement (see Figure 3.6).
Source: ProcurCompEU survey results for 11 public entities in Croatia (July 2023)
Croatia did not have a comprehensive training on innovation procurement, as the existing training modules focus on general aspects of public procurement, without an in-depth focus on innovation procurement. Yet, supporting innovation in the country has been identified as a priority to recover from the COVID-19 crisis and its effects on the Croatian economy. Indeed, developing a capacity-building system on innovation procurement is directly linked to measure C2.9.R3 Innovative procurement (#263) of the Recovery and Resilience Plans (RRP) of the government of Croatia, and is included as one of the main deliverables of the TSI project Supporting implementation of innovation procurement in Croatia implemented by the OECD.
The ProcurCompEU survey results confirmed the relevance of developing a comprehensive capacity-building system on innovation procurement. To benefit from concrete experiences in opportunities and challenges brought by innovation procurement, the OECD decided to work on this programme with the Norwegian Agency of Public and Financial Management (DFØ). The capacity building system includes a manual and a 3.5-day comprehensive training programme on innovation procurement.
Learning by doing: the development of a training programme focusing on practice
To develop the capacity-building programme on innovation procurement, the OECD agreed with the EC and the government of Croatia including MINGO and HAMAG-BICRO on the structure and contents of the modules of the training programme, building upon the results of the ProcurCompEU survey. The core module on innovation procurement provided a comprehensive overview of innovation procurement throughout the procurement cycle, from planning to contract management, which consists of nine steps, and which combine theory and practice. In addition to the core module on innovation procurement, the training programme also included additional modules on related topics, such as contract award criteria, project management, risk management, and key performance indicators.
Source: Created by the authors
Source: Manual and training materials on innovation procurement developed by the OECD in strong partnership with the Norwegian Agency for Public and Financial Management (DFØ)
The OECD organised a 3.5-day training session in Zagreb from February 13-16, 2024, in collaboration with international experts from the DFØ. The training was conducted as a "Training of Trainers" (ToT) programme and aimed at training 15 trainers from four entities (MINGO, HAMAG-BICRO, the Central State Office for Central Public Procurement, and SAFU) to deliver future trainings on innovation procurement. Three different cases of innovation procurement were developed and used for the practical exercises during the training. The ToT programme was followed by an online quiz in April 2024 and a 3-hour virtual follow-up webinar on May 15, 2024, to support the trainers in planning pilot workshops for public procurement officials in Croatia.
Pilot training workshops were held in Zadar on 3-4 June 2024 and in Zagreb on 5-6 June 2024 and included representatives from the OECD and DFØ. Each workshop lasted 2 days and focused on the core module of innovation procurement. For each 2-day pilot workshop in Zadar and Zagreb, four trainers from each of the four entities that participated in the ToT programme (MINGOR, HAMAG-BICRO, Central State Office for Central Public Procurement and SAFU), were mobilised to provide public procurement officials from various contracting authorities and contracting entities with training on innovation procurement (See Annex A for more detailed information on the Training of Trainers (ToT) programme and pilot training workshops).
The engagement with key stakeholders in the public procurement system in Croatia (MINGO, HAMAG-BICRO, Central State Office for Central Public Procurement and SAFU) demonstrated a strong commitment from the government of Croatia in promoting innovation procurement. Having these key stakeholders of public procurement system in Croatia to deliver a training programme was a unique initiative. Indeed, the participation of SAFU as an oversight body could help reduce the potential fear of audits among procurement officials. It laid the foundations for an ambitious training action plan which should be sustained over the years. As a consequence, the Procurement Training Plan for 2024-2025 has been adopted, and training sessions are being regularly carried out.
Developing a manual on innovation procurement with concrete cases and examples
In addition to the training programme, a manual on how to carry out innovation procurement was also developed to accompany the training efforts. The manual aims to provide public procurement officials in Croatia with a practical step-by-step guide on how to carry out innovation procurement procedures through the above mentioned nine steps by combining theory, practical examples and case studies. In total, seven case studies were prepared, following the nine steps to carry out innovation procurement for different procurement procedures and methods, including: open procedure, competitive procedure with negotiation, competitive dialogue, design contest, pre-commercial procurement and innovation partnership in Norway and Croatia.
One of the cases featured in the manual was the innovation procurement process carried out by the city of Koprivnica, which served as the national example of innovation procurement in Croatia. This manual is expected to contribute to increasing the uptake of innovation procurement in Croatia by closing the gap of the capacity and knowledge to carry out innovation procurement procedures. This manual was uploaded in August 2024 to the Public Procurement Portal of MINGO as well as the portal of HAMAG-BICRO. (MINGO and HAMAG-BICRO, 2024[3]) MINGO also prepared a short summary document on innovation procurement called “Roadmap through nine steps - How to plan and successfully implement innovative procurement”, based on the manual (MINGO, 2024[4]). Going forward, Croatia would need to regularly update the manual, by adding to new elements and cases, especially as the country sees more examples of innovation procurement.
Croatia could also benefit from considering the possibility of establishing excellence award system on innovation procurement. Excellence award system can contribute to increasing the motivation of public procurement officials by recognising the achievements of public procurement officials as well as encouraging the knowledge sharing of good cases of innovation procurement in Croatia. These cases will enrich examples of innovation procurement in Croatia, which can be incorporated into the update manual and training modules. Countries like New Zealand and Lithuania established excellence award system to acknowledge the public procurement workforce in various fields. In Lithuania, for example, as part of its action plan to professionalise the public procurement workforce (2019 – 2022), the Ministry of Economy and Innovation of Lithuania established an excellence award system for the public procurement workforce in 2021 in collaboration with the Public Procurement Office for the purpose of motivating the public procurement workforce. This excellence award system rewards contracting authorities in four categories: the most sustainable, the most innovative, the smartest, and the best procurement governance/processes (OECD, 2024[5]). KOINNO, a National Competence Centre for Innovation Procurement of Germany, organised excellence award of innovation procurement. (see Box 3.2.)
KOINNO is a National Competence Centre for Innovation Procurement of Germany, which is financed by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK). KOIINO provides contracting authorities and economic operators with services related to innovation procurement free of charge:
Administering one-stop portal on innovation procurement.
Providing contracting authorities with technical consultancy services for the implementation of innovation procurement as well as for accompanying the reorientation of procurement organisation such as the use of new procurement instruments (innovation partnership, PCP, etc.) and the implementation of a concrete procurement project for the purchase of an innovative product / service.
Providing contracting authorities with capacity-building opportunities and useful tools such as Guide to innovative public procurement, KOINNO e-Learning for public procurement officials (with certificate of completion), Tool Vergabe-Wahl-O-Mat to find the right procurement procedure, KOINNO Deadline Assistant to determine the deadlines for procurement procedure with an overview of all phases and dates of the procedure, and KOINNO Evaluation Method Guide to determine evaluation methods, KOINNO Certificate (bronze, silver, gold).
Providing economic operators with capacity-building opportunities and useful tools such as Playbook: Procurement for startups and innovative SMEs, e-learning, and the three-level certificates.
Administering the digital platform KOINNOvationsplatz to connect the public sector and the private sector which makes it easier for both parties to exchange and identify innovations
Publishing biannual KOINNOmagazine.
Publishing good practices (cases) of innovation procurement.
KOINNO organised an excellence award system for innovation procurement called Innovation schafft Vorsprung" (Innovation Creates Progress) in collaboration with the BMWK and the Association for Supply Chain Management, Procurement, and Logistics (BME) to recognise significant achievements by contracting authorities in the field of innovation procurement under the two distinct categories: "Procurement of Innovation" and "Innovative Procurement Processes." This excellent award programme for the year 2025, Innovation Creates Progress, will be organised by the organisation BME International (BME Award "Innovation creates a lead") under the sponsorship of the BMWK.
Along with public procurement officials, other actors in the public procurement ecosystem such as senior management and end-users (technical department) play a key role for the successful implementation of innovation procurement. For example, OECD fact-finding meetings found that it is sometimes difficult for procurement officials to convince senior management to approve the launch of innovation procurement processes. Indeed, 15% of the survey participants selected “Lack of understanding on the relevance of innovation procurement by the senior management, procurement officials, and/or control bodies” as the biggest obstacle in carrying out innovation procurement (See Figure 3.6). Therefore, raising awareness on innovation procurement among key stakeholders in contracting authorities, especially senior management, is also key to ensure a better uptake of innovation procurement.
Croatia needs to maximise the benefits of the recently developed capacity-building system to promote innovation procurement by seeking synergies with other professionalisation initiatives put in place in the country, such as the competency matrix of the public procurement workforce and the national certification framework.
Leveraging Croatia’s competency matrix of the public procurement workforce to update the training programme on innovation procurement
Croatia could leverage the existing professionalisation tools to ensure that the training programme stays up to date and responds to the needs of the procurement officials. In 2023, the government of Croatia developed a competency matrix of the public procurement workforce in Croatia by adapting the 30 competences of the ProcurCompEU competency matrix. (See Box 3.3 for more details on the developed competency matrix).
In 2023, the government of Croatia adapted ProcurCompEU (the European public procurement competency framework) to the context of Croatia as part of the reform measure No. 258 C2.9. R1 Continuous provision of public procurement training under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (2021-2026). The Manual for evaluating and developing competences in the field of public procurement includes the competency matrix which adopted the same 30 competences with four proficiency levels of the ProcurCompEU competency matrix into the context of Croatia. It also lists seven job profiles: (i) procurement support officer / procurement officials for simple procurement procedures, (ii) procurement officials carrying out a procurement procedure independently, (iii) procurement officials carrying out a procurement procedure in a team, (iv) category specialist, (v) contract management specialist, (vi) manager, and (vii) control officers. The proficiency descriptions for control officers were developed for each competence, because the main target of ProcurCompEU competency matrix is procurement officials who carry out procurement procedures and therefore did not have proficiency descriptions for control officers.
Source: (MINGO, 2023[9])
On this basis, Croatia could continue updating the training programme on innovation procurement by carrying out a self-assessment survey to public procurement officials and/or a feedback survey to participants of training. Leveraging Croatia’s competency matrix of the public procurement workforce through regular surveys would help identify specific knowledge gaps and emerging needs, allowing the training content to be tailored accordingly.
Linking the training on innovation procurement with the current certification framework
Croatia could continue linking the training programme on innovation procurement with the training requirements under the current national certification framework. Under the current certification framework of Croatia, a candidate is required to complete 50-hours of training, comprising 19 modules on public procurement, before taking the examination to obtain a certificate. In addition, the validity of the certificate is 3 years, and its renewal requires the completion of an additional 32-hour training (See Box 3.4 for more detailed information on the national certification framework in Croatia).
Croatia launched its national certification framework (one level) in 2012. MINGO is in charge of administering the certification framework in accordance with the Regulation on education in the field of public procurement (Official Gazette, No. 06/2012). To obtain a certificate, the candidate is required to complete a 50-hours training, composed of 19 modules, and to pass the written examination. The candidate needs to have at least 70% of accuracy to pass the exam. The certificate is valid for 3 years, and the renewal requires the completion of a 32-hour professional training which must be linked with at least one of the 30 competences of the Croatia competency matrix and be validated by MINGO. The training programme can be implemented by MINGO, State School for Public Administration and/or other public or private entities authorised by MINGO (called training providers). Article 197 of the Public Procurement Act of Croatia makes it mandatory for contracting authorities to set up an expert committee for public procurement in charge of preparing and implementing the procurement procedure. At least one member of this committee must hold a valid certificate issued by the MINGO.
The following are the 19 modules of the training curriculum in the field of public procurement:
Legislative and institutional framework of the public procurement system in the Republic of Croatia and the European Union
Principles of public procurement
Protection of market competition, prevention of corruption and ethics in the public procurement system
Scope of the application of the PPA (e.g. entities subject to the PPA)
Exemptions from the application of the PPA
General procurement management and organisation of public procurement at contracting authority
Planning and register of public procurement contracts
Preparation of the public procurement procedure (market research, preliminary analysis of the market and prior market consultation
Public procurement procedures (open procedure, restricted procedure, competitive procedure with negotiation, competitive dialogue, innovation partnership, negotiated procedure without publication of the contract notice, special procurement regimes)
Techniques and instruments for electronic and aggregated procurement (framework agreement, dynamic purchasing system, electronic auction, electronic catalogues, qualification system)
Tender documents (form and content, description of procurement items and technical specifications, call for tender)
Criteria for qualitative selection (exclusion grounds, selection criteria, European Single Procurement Document)
Contract award criteria
Tender (form and content, receiving and opening the tender, procedure for review and evaluation of bids)
Procedure for making a decision on award or cancellation and stand-still period
Contract awarding and modifications
Legal protection in the public procurement system
Protection of market competition, prevention of corruption and ethics in the public procurement system
Sustainable public procurement (green public procurement, socially responsible public procurement and innovation procurement)
Exercise of the implementation of the public procurement procedure - minimum 4 teaching hours.
Source: (MINGOR, 2023[10])
As such, the training programme on innovation procurement, as delivered during the pilot training workshops, could be included in the 32-hour training for the renewal of certificate. In fact, training on innovation procurement can be considered as 16 hours out of the 32-hour training requirement for renewal of certificate. Including it in the 50-hour training curriculum to obtain the initial certificate would not be ideal as the latter focuses on broad and integral aspects of public procurement, and a comprehensive training on innovation procurement requires more in-depth focus and a larger time commitment (e.g. 16 hours or more). As a result, such a module would not fit within the scope of the 50-hour package. Croatia could continue to consider the training on innovation procurement as part of 32-hour training for the renewal of certificate.
In the long term, Croatia could also consider the possibility of establishing a certificate for innovation procurement, if the country intends to make the component of innovation procurement more visible under the certification framework. Certification for innovation procurement has not been a common initiative across the OECD and EU countries yet, but some countries introduced thematic certificates such as sustainable public procurement. For example, Norway has two types of certificates: basic and sustainable public procurement (See Box 3.5). The purpose of the certificate in Norway is only to acknowledge the skill level of the public procurement workforce and is not a prerequisite to carry out procurement procedures (e.g. being a member of the tender committee).
The Norwegian Government Agency for Public and Financial Management (DFØ) established a national certification scheme for public procurement (SOA). The certification framework under SOA consists of two types of certificates: SOA Basic and SOA Sustainability.
SOA Basic, which started in 2019, functions as a basic-level certificate. It covers five main topics: introduction to public procurement, procurement planning, market competition, contract management, and public procurement legal framework.
SOA Sustainable public procurement, which started in 2021, focuses on green public procurement and socially responsible public procurement by covering the same five topics as the SOA Basic. Weighting of the exam is climate change (35%), workers’ rights (30%), human rights (30%) and other social aspects (5%). There are 40 questions to be answered within 60 minutes.
DFØ is responsible for administering the exam to obtain a certificate as the owner of SOA, while private companies (currently 6 companies for SOA Basic and 4 for SOA Sustainability) are in charge of providing training although completing a course is not mandatory to take the exam.
3.1.3. Reinforcing the role of HAMAG-BICRO as a competence centre
Currently, HAMAG-BICRO acts as a competence centre of innovation procurement with the mandate to promote the use of innovation procurement in Croatia. A competence centre was established within HAMAG-BICRO during the EU-funded PPI2Innovate project, which ran from 2016-2019 and aimed at building the capacities of contracting authorities and therefore boosting the use of innovation procurement in Central Europe. A competence centre of innovation procurement can be defined as an organisation/organisational structure that has been assigned the task by its government and has a mandate according to national law to encourage wider use of pre-commercial procurement (PCP) and public procurement of innovative solutions (PPI) that includes among others providing practical and/or financial assistance to public procurers in the preparation and/or implementation of PCP and PPI across all sectors of public interest. (Procure2Innovate, 2020[12])
Table 3.3 lists the current functions of HAMAG-BICRO as a competence centre of innovation procurement in Croatia, although not all functions need to be covered by a competence centre.
Note: (*) These initiatives started in March 2024, but without any record of support as of September 2024, (**) HAMAG-BICRO plans to launch survey to contracting authorities, (***) subpage dedicated to the competence centre within the portal of HAMAG-BICRO
Source: Created by the author based on the information provided by HAMAG-BICRO
Maximising the potential of the one-stop portal as a source of information on innovation procurement
HAMAG-BICRO established a subpage dedicated to the competence centre of innovation procurement within its website. (HAMAG-BICRO, n.d.[13]) It provides a short description on innovation procurement, and lists some useful documents such as the manual on innovation procurement recently developed in collaboration with the OECD (See 3.1.2) and other documents from the European Commission as well as guidance/examples from other countries. Given its potential, HAMAG-BICRO could benefit from enriching the contents of this subpage, especially as the scope of the competence centre evolves.
This subpage could receive inspiration from the green public procurement (GPP) portal of Croatia, which provides an example of a user-friendly and comprehensive one-stop-shop GPP portal. It publishes useful information on GPP such as regulatory frameworks, training materials, e-learning (video tutorials), GPP criteria, good practices and examples of GPP in Croatia, and tools including LCC and a methodology for calculating carbon dioxide emission savings for specific products, GPP helpdesk, GPP statistics, and newsletters (MINGOR, n.d.[14]). The one-stop-shop portal of the Austrian competence centre of innovation procurement provides information on successful innovation procurement projects in Austria as well as its services available to contracting authorities and/or economic operators: innovation platform, training, networking & events, and technical and financial support. (See Box 3.6 for the scope of the Austrian competence centre). HAMAG-BICRO could consider the possibility of publishing more information such as training opportunities, providing technical support, and promoting good practices such as the example of the city of Koprivnica. In addition, in the long term, it will be worth considering the possibility of creating an independent portal, as currently it is a subpage within the website of HAMAG-BICRO.
Enhance further capacity-building efforts
When it comes to capacity-building, representatives from HAMAG-BICRO attended the ToT programme, and in turn provided training under the pilot training workshops discussed in section 3.1.2. HAMAG-BICRO is expected to continue providing training on innovation procurement in collaboration with MINGO. While preparing guidance and manuals is not a mandate of HAMAG-BICRO per se, HAMAG-BICRO could contribute to updating the manual on innovation procurement developed in collaboration with MINGO (See 3.1.2).
Promoting the technical support function of HAMAG BICRO to better assist innovation procurement
HAMAG-BICRO started providing technical support to assist contracting authorities and entities in identifying needs and carrying out innovation procurement procedures in March 2024. The request for technical support can be submitted to the e-mail address available in the subpage. As of September 2024, however, no requests have been submitted to HAMAG-BICRO. This might be attributable to the lack of awareness regarding this technical support among public buyers. Indeed, the portal does not have a specific section dedicated to this technical support, and only mentions that “In the coming period, the trainers will conduct further education for buyers and potential bidders in public procurement procedures, as well as counselling interested clients and potential bidders with the aim of raising awareness of innovative public procurement in the Republic of Croatia.” Therefore, HAMAG-BICRO could benefit from raising awareness on this technical support among contracting authorities by creating a specific section for it on the subpage, including information on the scope of the technical support and how to apply for this support. For example, the one-stop portal of the Austrian competence centre of innovation procurement has a dedicated section on the technical support which provides detailed information on the support and application process (See Box 3.6).
In addition, HAMAG-BICRO could benefit from strengthening collaboration with other key stakeholders of public procurement such as MINGO and the Central State Office for Central Public Procurement for the purpose of providing technical support. HAMAG-BICRO, as an innovation agency in Croatia, has a comparative advantage in identifying needs, but not always in carrying out actual procurement procedures. Indeed, MINGO and the Central State Office for Central Public Procurement have comparative advantage over HAMAG-BICRO in public procurement procedure, which was also confirmed by the result of the ProcurCompEU self-assessment survey in terms of average scores of procurement-specific competences. MINGO, as a public procurement authority and policy maker of public procurement, is familiar with all aspects of public procurement in Croatia and have rich experience in providing training as part of the requirements under the national certification framework. The Central State Office for Central Public Procurement, as a national CPB in Croatia and a good reference model for other contracting authorities, has solid experience in carrying out actual public procurement procedures. Additionally, the insights from control and remedy bodies such as SAFU and DKOM will be valuable.
In Austria, for example, officials of the competence centre of innovation procurement assist contracting authorities in identifying and describing the needs during the preparation phase of innovation procurement. When contracting authorities decide to launch innovation procurement procedure, BBG, a federal CPB in Austria, is available to help them carry out innovation procurement procedure (See Box 3.6).
In Austria, the PPPI (innovation-promoting public procurement:) Service Centre, or a national competence centre of innovation procurement, was established within the Federal Procurement Agency (BBG) in 2013. Financed by the Ministry of Digital and Economic Affairs (BMDW) and the Ministry of Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology (BMK), the PPPI Service Centre aims at building bridges between public procurers and innovative companies, and acts as the single point of contact for innovation procurement issues in Austria including pre-commercial procurement. The PPPI service point is a one-stop shop for all questions about PPPI and its operational implementation.
The PPPI Service Centre offers the following services:
Acting as a one-stop shop for questions concerning innovation procurement
Providing contracting authorities with technical support to carry out innovation procurement:
The PPPI Service Centre helps contracting authorities identify potentials for innovation procurement projects (describing needs and functional requirements etc)
BBG helps contracting authorities carry out an actual innovation procurement procedure
Administering the IÖB digital innovation platform: This digital platform provides the following two modules:
Innovation Marketplace: The platform contains an online marketplace for innovative companies whereby they can showcase their innovative products and services. Contracting authorities can use this marketplace for market research purposes and will be able to find solutions for public administration that have been tested for their level of innovation.
IÖB Challenges: In case contracting authorities do not find a suitable innovative solution in the Innovation Marketplace, they can announce an IÖB challenge whereby they post their challenges and problems so that innovative companies can submit their innovative solutions that solve those challenges.
Coordinating a national funding scheme for innovation procurement projects funded by the BMK
Preparation cost:
Consulting costs for the design and implementation of IÖB challenges on the IÖB innovation platform: up to 90% of the eligible costs but limited to EUR 15 000 of the eligible costs.
Costs for legal and/or technical advice to prepare tenders: up to 90% of the eligible project costs but limited to up to EUR 20 000 of the eligible costs.
Cost to procure innovative goods and service
Investment funding for innovative procurement projects: up to 90% of the eligible costs but limited up to a maximum of EUR 100 000
Providing trainings for contracting authorities
Organising networking and events
Supporting Austrian ministries in the implementation of the PPPI guiding concept on a national level
In Norway, under the scheme of the Norwegian StartOff model, the StartOff team which is composed of the Norwegian Supplier Development Programme (LUP) as a competence centre of innovation procurement in Norway, the Norwegian Digitalisation Agency and the Norwegian Agency for Public and Financial Management (DFØ) as a public procurement authority of Norway, alleviated the burden of contracting authorities in carrying out procurement procedures to allow them to concentrate on learning and identifying optimal solutions (See Box 2.2).
Providing financial support to boost innovation procurement
Currently, neither HAMAG-BICRO nor any other public entities in Croatia do not provide financial support to assist innovation procurement (except the one provided through ESIF). Under the context of innovation procurement, financial support could include, but are not limited to, covering (i) administrative cost of preparing innovation procurement, (ii) all/part of actual R&D expenses, and/or (iii) all/part of procuring the outcome in innovation procurement. In Austria, for example, the financial support is applicable to consulting costs for the design and implementation of innovative solutions, administrative costs (legal and/or technical advice to prepare tenders), and investment fundings for innovation procurement projects (See Box 3.6).
Creating platforms and events to connect the public procurement with the private sector
HAMAG-BICRO has the plan to launch a survey to contracting authorities in Croatia to collect the needs of innovation in the public sector. Then, HAMAG-BICRO will register all the collected needs and publish them in its subpage dedicated to the competence centre. This will serve as the important first step to grasp the needs of innovation in the public sector.
In addition to collecting needs for innovation in the public sector through a survey, HAMAG-BICRO could consider the possibility of establishing digital platforms and networking events whereby public buyers (contracting authorities and contracting entities) and economic operators can interact to exchange ideas and needs on innovation.
For example, the Austrian competence centre of innovation procurement established an PPPI (innovation-promoting public procurement) platform. It provides economic operators with the opportunity to showcase their innovative products and services, which can be viewed by contracting authorities and can be used as the database of market analysis. In case contracting authorities do not find a suitable innovative solution they can announce IÖB challenge whereby they post their challenges and problems and ask innovative companies to offer their solutions.
In Japan, the Cabinet Office of Japan organised a pitch event in 2023 whereby 42 start-ups did a 3-minute pitch to present their innovative products and solutions in front of contracting authorities (See Box 3.7).
The Cabinet Office of Japan has been taking strong initiatives to promote innovation procurement in Japan. The Cabinet Office organized a two-day hybrid pitch event on 28 and 29 November 2023 to connect innovative start-ups with the public sector. The event was kicked-off by a panel discussion on innovation procurement by the experts from the Cabinet Office, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan (METI), the OECD and municipalities. Then, 42 start-ups did a 3-minute pitch to present their innovative products and solutions. Each participant received feedback from three evaluators who are familiar with the innovative solutions. Booths were also set up within the venue to facilitate networking between the start-ups and the public entities.
Ensuring adequate recourses for the effective operation of the competence centre
It is essential to secure adequate resources for the effective operations of a competence centre of innovation procurement, as its scope evolves and expands. A competence centre was established within HAMAG-BICRO during the EU-funded PPI2Innovate project, which funded its activities during the project implementation period. However, the OECD fact-finding meetings found that HAMAG-BICRO has been facing challenges in securing sufficient resources for its effective operations since the PPI2Innovate project was completed. Currently, six HAMAG-BICRO officials work to operate the activities of the competence centre of innovation procurement, but all of them work part-time for the competence centre while assuming other tasks of HAMAG-BICRO. This situation might be below the average of suggested human recourses for a competence centre, should usually comprise between 4 and 6 full-time staff (See Figure 3.8).
A competence centre on innovation procurement is an organisation/organisational structure that has been assigned the task by its government and has a mandate according to national law to encourage wider use of pre-commercial procurement (PCP) and public procurement of innovative solutions (PPI) that includes among others providing practical and/or financial assistance to public procurers in the preparation and/or implementation of PCP and PPI across all sectors of public interest.
The following conditions are fundamental to help competence centres to operate efficiently and give them credibility:
Personnel resources are allocated (on average between 4 and 6 full-time equivalent).
Define the roles needed in your competence centre, such as procurement expert, communication expert, legal expert, project management support, stakeholder engagement officer.
Budget is allocated (existing competence centres have a median annual budget of €600,000)
Official mandate from the (national) government.
National or comprehensive character of the competence centre, i.e. the institution needs to be perceived as the one key actor in the field of innovation procurement.
Cooperation agreements with key government stakeholders.
Networking relationships with NGOs and procurement associations.
Source: (Procure2Innovate, 2020[12])
To perform effectively the current and upcoming roles of HAMAG-BICRO including the delivery of training, provision of technical support and the needs collection, the team of the competence centre will need to ensure various expertise. These include, but are not limited to, the expertise related to pre-procurement phase (e.g. needs identification and assessment, market consultation), the expertise related to procurement phase (e.g. legal frameworks, procurement procedures, tender conditions, tender evaluation), the category-specific expertise (e.g. sectors and categories) and customer relations. However, it is not feasible to expect that one official has all the expertise to get engaged on all the tasks alone. Therefore, it is realistic to set up a team of the competence centre which consists of experts with different expertise. In particular, HAMAG-BICRO will need more resources when they receive a request for providing technical support to assist contracting authorities and entities in identifying needs and carrying out innovation procurement procedures. In Germany, KOINNO provides technical consultation free of charge, because its activity is financed by the federal state budget (See Box 3.2.).
It goes without saying that the adequate level of resources should be granted not only to HAMAG-BICRO but also to other potential collaborating entities such as MINGO, SAFU and DKOM.
The previous sections focused on enabling elements of innovation procurement such as the regulatory and institutional frameworks as well as the capacity of public procurement officials to implement innovation procurement. However, these enabling elements will not produce the expected outcome without buy-in from other stakeholders of innovation procurement such as the private sector, remedy bodies and control bodies. Even if public procurement officials are ready and willing to carry out innovation procurement, the uptake of innovation procurement will not increase if other stakeholders are not ready for it.
3.2.1. Making the private sector ready to respond to innovation procurement
Economic operators play important role in innovation procurement, as they are the ones providing innovative solutions based on the needs and problems described by the public sector. Therefore, innovation procurement will not lead to innovation without obtaining buy-in from the economic operators.
The OECD launched an online survey to economic operators in Croatia in the Summer of 2024. The purpose of this survey was (i) to collect information on their appetite and perspectives on innovation procurement; and (ii) to identify challenges to promote the uptake of innovation procurement in Croatia from their viewpoint. Overall, the survey demonstrated a decent level of interest from economic operators in innovation procurement, considering the fact that 1 077 economic operators contributed to the survey.
This section presents the key takeaways and results of this survey and proposes ways forward that Croatia could consider in order to engage economic operators in innovation procurement.
The private sector is experienced in public procurement and shows a good appetite for innovation procurement
Overall, the survey results found that economic operators have a strong experience in working with the public sector through public procurement and that they expressed confidence and appetite in participating innovation procurement opportunities to provide the public sector with innovative solutions.
The majority of the survey respondents have experience in public procurement. Indeed, 88% of the survey respondents (944 out of 1 077 economic operators) participated in public procurement during 2021 – 2024, while 12% did not participate in public procurement, while 76% of the economic operators were awarded a contract(s).
Source: OECD innovation procurement survey carried out to economic operators in Croatia (August 2024)
In addition, the survey participants showed positive views on the Croatian market readiness to deliver innovative goods and services and confidence in their contribution to boosting innovation in the country.
55% of the surveyed economic operators consider that the Croatian market is ready to deliver innovative goods and services. 13% expressed the view that it is not ready yet, and 32% refrained from expressing their views on the market readiness.
Source: OECD innovation procurement survey carried out to economic operators in Croatia (August 2024)
64% of the economic operators think that they can contribute to at least one thematic priority area of the Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialization (RIS3 strategies) of Croatia (2023-2029). In particular, smart and clean energy (28%), digital products and platforms (26%) and smart and green transport (20%) were identified as the three promising areas among the seven thematic priority areas.
Source: OECD innovation procurement survey carried out to economic operators in Croatia (August 2024)
67% of surveyed economic operators showed their interest in participating in innovation procurement opportunities in the future, which is promising, as it suggests a strong potential for market engagement in innovative projects.
Source: OECD innovation procurement survey carried out to economic operators in Croatia (August 2024)
Some challenges need to be tackled to ensure the participation of economic operators in innovation procurement
The survey result showed positive interest of economic operators in innovation procurement. However, it also shows different level of understanding on innovation procurement.
Source: OECD innovation procurement survey carried out to economic operators in Croatia (August 2024)
Indeed, 61% of surveyed economic operators stated that they did not know anything about innovation procurement. The rest of the 39% has certain knowledge and experiences in innovation procurement. Within these 39%, 29% are somewhat or relatively well familiar with the concept of innovation procurement. 6% stated that they were familiar with how the procedures and processes work in innovation procurement, although they have never participated in an innovation procurement procedure. 4% have participated in actual innovation procurement procedures.
Figure 3.14 lists the obstacles that prevent economic operators from participating in innovation procurement.
Note: % of the survey participants that selected each option as the obstacles which prevent them from participating in innovation procurement.
For example, 517 out of 1 077 participants (48%) selected the lack of the vision on innovation procurement as an obstacle which prevent them from participating in innovation procurement.
Source: OECD innovation procurement survey carried out to economic operators in Croatia (August 2024)
The lack of the vision of the public sector on innovation procurement (48% of the survey participants) was identified as the biggest obstacle which prevent economic operators from participating in innovation procurement. This is followed by the shorter time for preparing bids (35%), the lack of capacity of contracting authorities (34%) and economic operators (29%) on innovation procurement, lack of user-friendly guidelines and templates (29%), and the lack of awareness of innovation procurement among the public sector (28%) and economic operators (26%). Figure 3.15 lists the initiatives which would increase the willingness of economic operators to participate in innovation procurement in Croatia, and the result has the clear linkage with the obstacles.
Note: % of the survey participants that selected each option as the initiative which would increase the willingness of economic operators to participating in innovation procurement in Croatia. For example, 653 out of 1 077 participants (61%) selected raising awareness of innovation procurement as the effective initiative which could facilitate participation of economic operators in innovation procurement.
Source: OECD innovation procurement survey carried out to economic operators in Croatia (August 2024)
Raising awareness of innovation procurement (61% of the survey participants) was identified as the most effective initiative which could facilitate participation of economic operators in innovation procurement. This is followed by the clear commitment from the public sector in promoting innovation procurement (58%), training to improve the capability of economic operators to participate in innovation procurement (40%), user-friendly guidelines and templates (36%), and regular dialogue between the public sector and the market (36%).
Clear commitment from the public sector in promoting innovation procurement should be communicated by setting up a strategy for innovation procurement with a linkage to other sectoral polities, which was already discussed in the section 2.1.3.
The relevance of raising awareness on innovation procurement and providing economic operators with innovation procurement training resonates well with the relatively low level of knowledge and understanding of economic operators on innovation procurement, which was demonstrated in Figure 3.13. Croatia could benefit from organising workshops to raise awareness on innovation procurement among economic operators. In addition, the presence of key stakeholders of the public procurement system will contribute to communicating a strong commitment of the public sector in innovation procurement. These stakeholders from the public sector could include, but are not limited to, MINGO as a public procurement authority, and HAMAG-BICRO as a competence centre of innovation procurement. In fact, as part of the SG REFORM project, MINGO and HAMAG-BICRO organised the two 3-hour webinars on 25 and 28 November 2024 to raise awareness of innovation procurement among economic operators, which was attended by 396 representatives from economic operators. Countries like Austria and Germany provided economic operators, in particular, start-ups and SMEs, with training of innovation procurement (See Box 3.9.).
Austria:
The Federal Procurement Agency (BBG) and the PPPI (innovation-promoting public procurement) Service Centre, a national competence centre of innovation procurement in Austria, organised 3-hour training on innovation procurement How to successfully win public contracts in May 2024.
This training targeted economic operators, in particular, startups and innovative young companies. These companies might have already developed innovative products or solutions, brought them to market and now want to establish themselves further on the market including the public sector, but might lack know-how about the public sector.
Training aimed at providing them with a better understanding of the public sector, but also with the opportunity to learn about the legal and technical aspects of public procurement, with the following elements:
Entry into public procurement
Basics of public tenders
The bid in conformity with public procurement law
Public procurement procedures with examples
Practical tips for start-ups
This training was provided by three trainers: 2 trainers from BBG and 1 trainer from PPPI.
Germany:
KOINNO organised a training on innovation procurement to successfully winning innovative contracts. This training targeted economic operators, in particular, startups and innovative SMEs. The total duration of training was 6 hours, which consists of the three two-hour modules:
Module 1 provides a basic introduction to public procurement and explains the characteristics of procurement in the public sector, followed by an overview of the essential specifications and procurement procedures.
Module 2 provides an initial overview of the task during a tendering process, strategies for analysing the tender documents and remedy systems.
Module 3 focuses on the special opportunities and challenges of participating in public procurement for start-ups and innovative SMEs. In addition to a brief look at the innovation partnership, the focus will be on the "dos and don'ts" for initiating business in the run-up to tenders as well as the special aspects for proactively addressing the "newcomer problem".
KOIINO also developed Playbook: Procurement for startups and innovative SMEs, which contains information, tips and resources to help start-ups and young SMEs participate into the public procurement market.
KOINNO also provides economic operators, in particular startups and SMEs, with free e-learning so that they acquire a basic understanding of the processes of innovation procurement and the necessary information and basic knowledge to participate in public tenders with the seven chapters: (i) Principles of public procurement, (ii) Public procurement processes, (iii) Challenges of public procurement, (iv) Opportunities for public procurement, (v) Types of public procurement procedures, (vi) Bid evaluation in public tenders, and (vii) Quoting.
Source: (Austrian competence centre of innovation procurement, 2024[17]), (National Competence Centre for Innovation Procurement of Germany(KOINNO), 2024[18]) , (National Competence Centre for Innovation Procurement of Germany (KOINNO), 2024[19]) and (National Competence Centre for Innovation Procurement of Germany (KOINNO), n.d.[20])
The shorter time for preparing bids identified as the second biggest obstacle (35%) and the regular dialogue between the public sector and the private sector could be addressed through active market consultations.
Croatia took the initiative to promote prior market consultation in January 2018. Article 9 of the Rulebook on procurement plan, contract register, prior consultation and market analysis in public procurement (Official Gazette 101/2017, 144/2020 and 30/23) and Article 198 of the PPA made it mandatory for contracting authorities to carry out prior market consultation. (Croatian Parliament, 2016[21]) Contracting authorities are obliged to publish in the national e-procurement system EOJN for a duration of at least five days the draft procurement documents before starting open or restricted public procurement procedures for the procurement of works or above EU-threshold procurement for goods or services.
When it comes to innovation procurement, however, only publishing procurement documents for the purpose of collecting feedback will not be enough. More active market consultations and engagement will be necessary, because innovation procurement needs the engagement of economic operators who might not be on the public procurement market and might not check regularly the uploaded procurement documents into EOJN. Therefore, it is essential to carry out more active market consultations to promote each individual innovation procurement opportunity. For example, the city of Koprivnica carried out active market consultations by preparing an information document Market Sounding Prospectus: Extensive transformation of a prefabricated building and organising information sessions to raise awareness on the innovation procurement process among potential economic operators (See Box 2.1). For example, in Norway, different forms of open market consultations are used by contracting authorities to promote innovation procurement (See Box 3.10).
Vendor conference (open day)
A vendor conference is a strategic conference used to inform the market of upcoming procurement opportunities, typically in the next six to twelve months. The purpose of this conference is to provide the market with a chance to prepare themselves for the procurement process, and hopefully become more prepared and positioned to be awarded contracts:
Introduction and information on why you invited potential bidders to the conference, who you are and what you hope to achieve with the conference
How to facilitate procurement and collaboration between public sector and bidders.
Contracting authorities’ needs and upcoming procurements (one or more contracting authorities can make presentations)
Registered economic operators’ presentations or pitch of their solutions
Q&A session
Next steps and concluding remarks
Dialogue conference
This conference focuses on one specific procurement already prepared to some extent, as opposed to the vendor conference mentioned above where several upcoming procurements that are not yet ready to be discussed in detail are presented.
Introduction and information on why you invited participants to the conference, who you are and what you hope to achieve with the conference
Presentation of procurement plans and needs
Questions and discussion
The way forward
<Example of the dialogue conference organised by Country Governor of Troms and Finnmark>
For example, the County Governor of Troms and Finnmark conducted a dialogue conference with potential suppliers and experts in preparation for pre-commercial procurement. The purpose was to gain knowledge about whether there are future solutions to develop a trapping device for pink salmon (which posed threat to other fish species) with automatic sorting, namely:
Technical solutions currently available on the market
The potential and limitations of current solutions
The main challenges in developing an automatic sorting system
The costs involved in developing a complete solution
Estimates of what it will cost to operate a complete solution
How long it will take to develop such a solution
The areas of application most appropriate for development
By inviting experts and suppliers/entrepreneurs to engage in dialogue, the County tried to find out whether an automated sorting solution for pink salmon is technically feasible and viable. It also wanted to enter into dialogue with other users who are in need of a similar solution. The agenda included:
Presentation of the challenge picture
Pre-commercial procurement
The plan ahead
Questions from participants
To promote a dialogue conference and this innovation procurement project itself, the Country also created and posted an 80 second short YouTube video which explains why the threat of pink salmon is their big problem, and developing trapping device of pink salmon with automatic sorting was relevant.
Source: Prepared based on the manual on innovation procurement and (The National Programme for Supplier Development (LUP), 2023[22])
In addition, Croatia could benefit from the more effective use of the best price-quality ratio criterion (BPQR criteria) by examining the types of BPQR used as contract award criteria. Croatia is the best performer among the EU Member States in terms of the use of BPQR criteria. In 2022, contracts awarded based on BPQR criteria accounted for 99% according to the Single Market Scoreboard (European Commission, 2023[23]). This might be attributable to Article 284 of the PPA that stipulates the mandatory use of BPQR: contracting authority and contracting entity may not determine only the price or the cost as the contract award criterion for selecting the offer, and that the relative weight of the price or cost may not exceed 90% (in other words, at least 10% for the BPQR) with some exceptions. (Croatian Parliament, 2016[21]) In fact, the share of the procurement procedures using the BPQR increased drastically from 57.12 in 2017 to 95.52 in 2018. In 2023, the use of BPQR was 99.44% in terms of number of procedure and 99.07% in terms of value (MINGO, 2024[24]).
However, the impact of this mandatory use of BPQR should be carefully examined from the viewpoint of value for money generated by the increased use of BPQR. In the response to the survey, some economic operators expressed the need to improve the quality of the BPQR, because in some cases 10% weight for the quality is allocated to the elements such as early delivery and longer warranty period rather than improved quality of the procured item itself. Using the quality criteria which spurs innovative solutions will facilitate the participation of innovative economic operators in innovation procurement opportunities.
3.2.2. Engaging further remedy bodies (DKOM and the Administrative Higher Court)
The State Commission for the Supervision of Public Procurement Procedures (DKOM), as an autonomous and independent body, handles review procedures related to public procurement in addition to concessions and public–private partnership. It aims at ensuring that public procurement procedure is carried out without any violations of the public procurement legal framework.
It is essential to increase the capability of the DKOM officials in reviewing the remedies claimed against innovation procurement procedures in the future. Currently, DKOM officials do not have to review the appeal requests against innovation procurement procedure due to its limited number of procedures. However, their role will become more and more relevant as Croatia witnesses more cases of innovation procurement procedures. Therefore, DKOM officials should be ready for the increased number of innovation procurement in the future. Increasing the capability of DKOM officials is further relevant, considering the fact that DKOM was not part of the ToT programme nor in pilot trainings organised under the TSI project (See 3.1.2).
3.2.3. Leveraging the capacity-building potential of control bodies on innovation procurement
Several contracting authorities in Croatia implement procurement procedures using European Structural & Investment Funds (ESIF). A major actor in the management of ESIF programmes is the Croatian Central Finance and Contracting Agency for European Union programmes and projects (SAFU) (Central Finance and Contracting Agency for European Union programmes and projects, n.d.[26]) .
SAFU is the most relevant control body of procurement procedures using ESIF among other ESIF control bodies in Croatia. SAFU also takes over the checks and control tasks of a part of project portfolio of other ESIF control bodies, depending on the criteria such as the financial threshold (estimated value of procurement) and risk factors (e.g. subject matter of contract, procurement procedure, previous experience of beneficiaries in public procurement).
As the most experienced control body within the ESIF management system, SAFU provides training programmes to disseminate knowledge acquired in the process of managing EU projects by educating its own officials (since 2009) but also employees in beneficiary institutions (since 2014). In addition, SAFU also provides training to other ESIF control bodies within the Croatian ESIF management system. (Central Finance and Contracting Agency for European Union programmes and projects, n.d.[26])
SAFU was part of the ToT programme and pilot trainings on innovation procurement organised under the TSI project. (See 3.1.2). Indeed, two officials from SAFU actively participated in the ToT programme and provided procurement officials from contracting authorities with training on innovation procurement in collaboration with MINGO, HAMAG-BICRO, and the Central State Office for Central Public Procurement. Therefore, SAFU can play key role in raising awareness on innovation procurement among control bodies within the ESIF system and provide them with training on innovation procurement from their perspective. Therefore, MINGO and HAMAG-BICRO, as key actors in promoting innovation procurement in Croatia, could benefit from strengthening further collaboration with SAFU to raise awareness of innovation procurement among control bodies as well as to reinforce the knowledge of control bodies on innovation procurement.
References
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[21] Croatian Parliament (2016), Public Procurement Act of the Republic of Croatia, https://narodne-novine.nn.hr/clanci/sluzbeni/full/2016_12_120_2607.html (accessed on 11 September 2024).
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