Professionalising public procurement through certification

1. Strengthening public procurement professionalisation through certification frameworks

1.1. Professionalising public procurement

In 2023, public procurement accounted for 12.7% of GDP and 29.9% of total government expenditures in OECD countries (OECD, 2025[1]). Given the volume of public spending it represents, public procurement is a key governmental activity that impacts a country’s economic and social development. Furthermore, recent global developments and trends, and the ongoing poly-crisis context are adding new layers of complexity to public procurement, demanding increasingly advanced skills from procurement officials (OECD, 2025[2]). The strategic use of public procurement to advance key policy objectives and respond to multiple crises, alongside heightened expectations and tightening fiscal constraints, calls for systems that manage public funds efficiently and effectively while fostering sustainable, resilient societies ready for the green and digital transitions. This requires public procurement officials to possess a skillset that goes beyond technical regulatory expertise, market analysis, and tender preparation to also encompass project management, negotiation, and other essential soft skills (OECD, 2023[3]). Strengthening the capacity of the public procurement workforce is therefore critical to achieving efficiency and value for money, making professionalisation a central priority in procurement reforms worldwide.

As procurement processes become more complex, it is increasingly recognised that procurement is not merely an administrative task but a strategic function within the public sector. As a profession, it is inherently multidisciplinary, demanding knowledge and experience across various domains such as law, economics, public administration, accounting, management, and marketing. The growing adoption of strategic procurement approaches makes these diverse skill sets and areas of expertise essential (OECD, 2019[4]). Furthermore, the lack of professionalisation contributes to frequent challenges related to civil service professions, such as high staff turnover and difficulty to attract talent.

Professionalisation of public procurement aims at ensuring that public procurement is understood as an interdisciplinary profession, not as a purely administrative task requiring basic legal knowledge. Hence, established competency models focus on an ample set of skills identified as relevant for public buyers, which typically would include “hard skills” such as legislation, but also a vast set of business skills related to the profession, e.g. needs assessment, market analysis, design of tender specification, category management, supplier management, and negotiation. Not least, soft skills are also part of the typical skillset required for successful public buyers, such as analytical and critical thinking, collaboration, and team management.

To build a procurement workforce capable of consistently delivering value for money, OECD and partner countries are investing significantly in professionalisation efforts. This is reflected in the growing number of countries reporting the introduction of initiatives such as competency models and certification frameworks in recent years. The OECD recommends that professionalisation initiatives follow three key stages: (1) assessing the existing level of professionalisation; (2) developing a professionalisation strategy; and (3) implementing that strategy. Such strategies may incorporate several dimensions, including the creation of a competency model, the establishment of a certification framework, the formal recognition of procurement as a distinct profession within the civil service, the strengthening of capacity-building systems, the design of incentive mechanisms to attract and retain skilled procurement officials, and enhanced collaboration with knowledge institutions (OECD, 2025[2]; OECD, 2023[3]).

1.2. What is a certification framework?

A certification framework certifies the level of skills and competences acquired by a public procurement official throughout their studies or in training programmes (OECD, 2019[5]). It is usually linked to a competency model, which maps the relevant skills for public procurement officials and their capability levels. Countries often rely on established international tools to develop these competency models. For instance, the European competency framework for public buyers (ProcurComp^EU) is a tool that several countries have used and adapted for their professionalisation strategies (Box 1). Furthermore, the Professionalisation (PROF) module developed as part of the Methodology for Assessing Procurement Systems (MAPS) initiative allows countries to assess to what extent public procurement is recognised as a profession and whether the procurement function in the public sector is being developed accordingly.

The key distinction between a certification framework and a competency model lies in the fact that a certification provides assurance about the level of skills and competences acquired through external certification, i.e. typically passing an exam. Hence, a certification framework allows public procurement officials to improve their knowledge and skills through targeted training on the competences required and may greatly contribute to improving the skills of public buyers in areas required in their daily work. It could also contribute to recognising public procurement as a professional task and a standalone job in the public service job family, which may lead to increasing the motivation of the workforce (OECD, 2023[3]).

Figure 1. Mapping the differences between competency models and certification framework

Source: Author’s elaboration

Box 1. ProcurComp^EU competency framework

ProcurComp^EU is a tool designed by the European Commission to support the professionalisation of public procurement. ProcurComp^EU consists of three elements:

• Competency matrix, which defines 30 procurement-related and soft competences along four proficiency levels;

• 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.

ProcurComp^EU is a flexible, voluntary and customisable tool. Getting value from ProcurComp^EU does not require using each and every componence of the framework, nor does it require the use of each and every competence defined in the ProcurComp^EU Competency Matrix.

Source: Source: (OECD, 2023[6])

According to the 2024 survey monitoring the implementation of the 2015 OECD Recommendation on Public Procurement, 38% of the surveyed OECD and accession countries (15 out of 40 respondent countries) currently have a national certification framework. 88% of the Respondent countries without a certification framework are developing it currently (8%) or are considering the possibility of developing it in the future (80%) (OECD, 2025[2]). This confirms the interest of countries in adopting a certification framework, which is considered as a good practice and included as an element under the capacity pillar in the OECD Recommendation on Public Procurement (OECD, 2015[7]).

Box 2. Principle of capacity

The 2015 OECD Recommendation on Public Procurement states that Adherents should develop a procurement workforce with the capacity to continually deliver value for money efficiently and effectively.

To this end, Adherents should:

i) Ensure that procurement officials meet high professional standards for knowledge, practical implementation and integrity by providing a dedicated and regularly updated set of tools, for example, sufficient staff in terms of numbers and skills, recognition of public procurement as a specific profession, certification and regular trainings, integrity standards for public procurement officials and the existence of a unit or team analysing public procurement information and monitoring the performance of the public procurement system.

ii) Provide attractive, competitive and merit-based career options for procurement officials, through the provision of clear means of advancement, protection from political interference in the procurement process and the promotion of national and international good practices in career development to enhance the performance of the procurement workforce.

iii) Promote collaborative approaches with knowledge centres such as universities, think tanks or policy centres to improve skills and competences of the procurement workforce. The expertise and pedagogical experience of knowledge centres should be enlisted as a valuable means of expanding procurement knowledge and upholding a two-way channel between theory and practice, capable of boosting application of innovation to public procurement systems.

Source: (OECD, 2015[7])

1.3. Context of this paper

It is increasingly acknowledged that public procurement professionalisation is a key pillar to ensure efficient and effective use of public procurement, yet countries are still struggling with introducing harmonised and coherent approaches to public procurement professionalisation that allow for broader upskilling of public buyers. By introducing requirements for procurement professionals, certification frameworks can offer a standardised and structured approach to the professionalisation of public buyers. The purpose of this paper is to shed light on good practices and provide clear guidance for countries interested in adopting a certification framework.   

In this context, with the purpose of taking stock of current practices on certification framework development, the OECD Secretariat carried out a survey on good practices of certification frameworks for public procurement of OECD and partner countries that have a certification framework in use. Table 1 details the countries and organisations that contributed to the survey.

Table 1. Countries that answered the survey on good practices of certification frameworks for public procurement (2025)

Country	Organisation responding to the survey
OECD countries
Austria	Federal Austrian Procurement Agency (BBG: Bundesbeschaffung GmbH),
Chile	ChileCompra
France	Direction des Achats de l’État (DAE), Ministry of Economy and Finance
Hungary	Public Procurement Regulation Department, National Development Centre
Israel	Government Procurement Administration (GPA), Ministry of Finance
Lithuania	Ministry of Economy and Innovation / Public Procurement Office
Norway	The Norwegian Agency for Public and Financial Management (DFØ)
Slovak Republic	Office for Public Procurement
United Kingdom	Government Commercial Function (GCF), Cabinet Office
OECD accession countries
Brazil	Ministry of Management and Innovation in Public Services
Croatia	Directorate for Public Procurement Policy (DPPP), Ministry of Economy (MINGO)
Peru	Specialised Organisation for Public Procurement Efficiency (OECE)
Romania	National Agency for Public Procurement
Others
Albania	Public Procurement Agency
Serbia	Public Procurement Office

Note: The certification framework of Austria is not a national one, but a framework administered by the Federal Procurement Agency for its staff

Source: Author’s elaboration based on the survey results

This policy paper builds on the analysis of the survey responses and follows up on the OECD policy paper “Professionalising the public procurement workforce: A review of current initiatives and challenges” (OECD, 2023[3]) with a focus on how countries are applying certification frameworks to support their public procurement professionalisation strategies. The insights into the development of a certification framework for public procurement are based on the results of the survey and on bilateral work between the OECD Secretariat and various countries. Chapter 2 presents the advantages of a certification framework, and the challenges related to launching one. Chapter 3 presents the current practices in designing a certification framework by discussing the elements to be considered when establishing a certification framework. Chapter 4 concludes by giving recommendations to countries interested in introducing a certification framework for public procurement.