Strategic Public Procurement and Professionalisation Initiatives in Estonia

5. Way forward

Abstract

This chapter provides the government of Estonia with recommendations and ways forward through the action plan to reinforce further the uptake of strategic public procurement and professionalisation to increase efficiency in public procurement system. This chapter presents an action plan table which describes the context, responsible authority(ies) and the estimated timeframe for each recommendation proposed in Chapters 2, 3, and 4.

This diagnostic report assessed the current state of play of the strategic use of public procurement and the professionalisation of the public procurement workforce in Estonia.

Chapter 2 analysed the current state of play of strategic procurement (green public procurement, socially responsible public procurement and innovation) in Estonia, focusing on the enabling elements of innovation procurement: (i) regulatory framework, (ii) institutional framework, (iii) strategy, (iv) buy-in from stakeholders including senior leaders and procurement practitioners, (v) market readiness, (vi) capacity-building system, and (vii) monitoring system and risk management.

Chapter 3 went deeper into the current practices of strategic procurement in Estonia, based on the OECD survey carried out to grasp the perceptions of public procurement officials in Estonia on strategic procurement. Indeed, the government of Estonia has been taking strong initiatives to promote the uptake of strategic procurement by adopting the Strategic Principles of Public Procurement in November 2023, followed by its action plan adopted in November 2024. Many institutions have been collaborating to achieve ambitious goals, to name a few, the Ministry of Finance as the public procurement authority, State Shared Services Centre (RTK) as a national central purchasing body, the Ministry of Climate (green public procurement), the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications (innovation procurement and socially responsible public procurement), the Government Office (innovation procurement), and the Estonian Business and Innovation Agency (innovation procurement).

Chapter 4 analysed the current state of play of professionalisation initiatives which Estonia has taken to promote the uptake of strategic public procurement. These include the development of the competency model for the public procurement workforce and the capability-building system which covers various procurement topics. However, there are still many opportunities that Estonia can take advantage of so as to further professionalise the public procurement workforce such as the development of the stand-alone professionalisation strategy, the reinforcement of the current capability-building system, incentive mechanisms, and the enhancement of collaboration with the academic centres.

This chapter provides the Government of Estonia with recommendations and ways forward to reinforce further the uptake of strategic public procurement and professionalisation to increase efficiency in public procurement system, building upon the analysis carried out in Chapter 2, 3, and 4.

Table 5.1 presents an action plan to implement the recommendations proposed in Chapters 2, 3, and 4. It describes the context, responsible authority(ies) and the estimated timeframe (short, intermediate, long) for each recommendation.

Table 5.1. Action plan for implementing the recommendations on strategic public procurement and professionalisation

Rec No.	Reform area S / GPP / SRPP / IP/ P (*)	Initiative	Context	Recommendation	Responsible authority/ies	Estimated timeframe (**)
1	S	Regulatory framework (legal clarity)	Estonia’s public procurement legal framework allows for the strategic use of public procurement. However, the lack of legal clarity is considered as a barrier to strategic public procurement for contracting authorities surveyed: the greatest challenge for socially responsible public procurement (57%) and innovation procurement (26%), and GPP (11%).	Estonia could ensure that contracting authorities have full confidence in what the law does or not allow them to do in terms of strategic procurement. In addition, Estonia could provide contracting authorities with further practical guidance on provisions that enable strategic public procurement (e.g. prior market consultations, implementation of selection and award criteria, etc.) to alleviate legal uncertainties.	MoF	Short-medium
2	S	Long-term budget visibility	The OECD fact-finding mission identified that some public procurement officials consider the lack of the long-term budget visibility as the bottleneck to promote the use of strategic procurement, in particular, innovation procurement and the life-cycle costing.	Estonia could consider providing increased budget visibility to facilitate the use of strategic procurement, in particular, innovation procurement and the use of life-cycle costing.	MoF	Medium
3	GPP	Monitoring compliance with the mandatory GPP criteria	Regulation no. 35 of the Minister of the Environment specifies four product groups where contracting authorities must include environmental criteria. However, the lack of compliance with mandatory criteria still presents a challenge in Estonia. During the OECD fact-finding mission, stakeholders reported that only half of procurers use the GPP mandatory criteria.	Estonia could improve the monitoring of compliance with GPP criteria and set up ways of dealing with lack of compliance by: • establishing transparency about failure to comply, such as benchmarking, identifying frontrunners, ‘naming & shaming’. • introducing incentives to do more than what is mandatory.	MoF	Short-medium
4	S	Awareness of Public Procurement Strategic Principles	In November 2023, the Public Procurement Strategic Principles were adopted by the Government of Estonia. Although most of the contracting authorities (88%) are aware of the Strategic Principles, lower levels of awareness were observed in the private sector: 54% of survey respondents from the private sectors are not aware of it, 30% are somewhat aware, and only 8% consider themselves familiar with it.	Estonia could raise awareness of the Public Procurement Strategic Principles, in particular, among the private sector.	MoF	Short
5	S	Awareness raising about the benefits of SPP among leaders and practitioners	The OECD survey to the senior management revealed that the buy-in for strategic public procurement amongst senior leaders of Estonian public entities is highly mixed. In addition, the notion that strategic procurement could lead to the higher price still prevails among leaders and practitioners.	Estonia could raise awareness among leaders and practitioners about the benefits of strategic public procurement, notably highlighting how this tool can be used in support of existing government policies (including national security) by: • developing case studies to demonstrate the value added of green procurement (partnering with university/ research institutions such as increasing Estonia’s competitiveness in green industries and analysing the comparison of cost (e.g. green procurement versus non-green procurement); and • rolling out success stories based on good practices.	MoF, Ministry of Climate, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, Estonian Business and Innovation Agency	Medium
6	S	Market engagement	Estonian businesses appear generally willing to participate in strategic public procurement procedures and have an overall positive view of the attractiveness of public procurement markets. The OECD survey to economic operators in Estonia showed that businesses considered many elements as barrier to participation in public procurement, which point to a greater need for engagement between the public sector and the private sector, in particular in preparation of a tender. In addition, it is relevant to increase the capacity of the private sector, in particular, SMEs, to prepare tender proposals.	Estonia could obtain more buy-in from the private sector by: • improving contracting authorities’ practices regarding the use of quality criteria, market engagement, the time for bidding, and the time taken to evaluate bids. • introducing sector dialogues, taking inspirations from evolutions that occurred in the ICT industry, and the focus on quality in tender development.	MoF / Estonian Business and Innovation Agency	Medium
7	S	Monitoring and evaluation	Estonia is well advanced in monitoring the strategic use of public procurement. However, there is room for improving the process to obtain more accurate data. Indeed, monitoring of strategic procurement may not be perfectly reflected in the current e-procurement system which implemented e-forms launched in the summer of 2024. The public buyers need to mark the strategic aspect of the public procurement process manually. As such, there may be some undercounting of the uptake of strategic procurement because procurement procedures are not labelled as such (i.e. green, social or innovative) by the buyer in the system.	Estonia could enhance the monitoring system of strategic procurement by: • improving the definitions of GPP, SRPP and innovation procurement and clearly communicate them to contracting authorities to ensure accurate measurement of strategic public procurement. • developing tools or standard templates to help procurers monitor the implementation of strategic procurement; and; • measuring the impacts of strategic public procurement, for example, through regular surveys to assess the performance of strategic procurement.	MoF, Ministry of Climate, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, Estonian Business and Innovation Agency	Medium
8	GPP	Life-cycle cost calculations	The survey carried out to contracting authorities in Estonia identified the potential (or perception) increase in acquisition price as the main challenge to implement green public procurement, like the case of institutional leaders, followed by other concerns such as the lack of adequate capability (i.e. insufficient support in terms of guidelines, tools and training) and limited market readiness to participate in GPP tender. In addition, public buyers in Estonia consider that it is technically difficult to implement LCC.	Estonia could focus on enhancing public buyer’s knowledge about life cycle costs by: • encouraging them to test simple calculation of alternative solutions in the preparatory stages of the procurement; and • as a second step, building up dedicated capacity for developing LCC calculations in the construction and infrastructure sector through a network of LCC experts	MoF / Ministry of Climate	Medium – Long
9	SRPP	Prioritisation of actions and objectives related to SRPP	It is not clear to procurement practitioners which social policy dimensions the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications would like to advance through the use of socially responsible public procurement, given the wide array of goals that can be supported (e.g. long-term unemployment, vulnerable groups, gender, accessibility, etc.) Recently, sample award criteria including criteria related to socially responsible public procurement were prepared by the Ministry of Finance.	Estonia could provide stronger prioritisation of actions and objectives related to SRPP, and clear communication of these objectives to buyers.	MoF / Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications	Medium
10	IP	Capability of carrying out innovation procurement	The survey carried out to contracting authorities in Estonia identified the lack of adequate capability as the main challenge to implement innovation procurement, followed by the lack of time to prepare the procedure as well as of the legal clarity which could be associated to implementing complex procurement procedures such as innovation partnerships. Since November 2024, the Estonian Business and Innovation Agency has been appointed as a voluntary centralised purchasing body for public procurement supporting innovation.	Beyond the support provided by the Estonian Business and Innovation Agency, Estonia could consider the possibility of: • creating a pool of innovation procurement experts to support innovation procurement processes on an ad-hoc basis; and • developing a comprehensive training on innovation procurement.	MoF, Estonian Business and Innovation Agency	Medium
11	P	Strategy for professionalisation	Currently, Estonia does not have a stand-alone policy to professionalise the public procurement workforce. However, strategies such as Public Procurement Strategic Principles and Public Governance Strategy (2024-2027) recognise the relevance of professionalising the public procurement workforce and specify some activities in the action plan. The Public Procurement Strategic Principles focus on the capability-building of strategic procurement with some other elements of professionalisation such as a competency model and the excellence award.	Estonia could consider developing a stand-alone public procurement professionalisation strategy with various initiatives such as setting up a certification framework, introducing incentive mechanisms and establishing collaboration with the knowledge centre.	MoF	Medium
12	P	Competency model and job profile	Estonia developed a competency model for the public procurement workforce in Estonia, which consists of 21 competences (14 procurement-specific ones and 7 soft competences) with four proficiency levels (Basic, Intermediate, Advanced and Expert). No typical job profiles related to public procurement (e.g. procurement specialist, procurement support officer) have been specified yet.	To reap the full benefits of the competency model, Estonia could consider specifying typical job profiles related to public procurement and match them with the required proficiency levels of each competence in the competency model.	MoF	Medium
13	P	Capacity building	The self-assessment result identified C5 (Innovation Procurement) as the weakest competence of the 143 participants with the lowest average point of 1.02, followed by C4-2 (Socially responsible public procurement), C6 (Risk management), C4-1 (Green public procurement), C10 (Market analysis & engagement). In addition, strong training needs were identified for the competences such as C5 (Innovation procurement), C2 (Legislation), C4-1 (Green public procurement), C4-2 (Socially responsible public procurement) and C10 (Market analysis & engagement). Currently, capacity-building initiatives (training and manuals) for some competences are not available. These include, to name a few, market consultation, needs assessment, procurement strategy (except FAs and DPSs) and contract management (except contract modification) It will be ideal if all training and manuals could be found at one portal.	Estonia could consider designing tailored capacity-building initiatives for the identified top-priority competences such as innovation procurement, socially responsible public procurement, risk management, green public procurement and market consultation. In particular, Estonia could consider developing trainings for topics: • which are currently not available (e.g. market consultation, needs assessment, procurement strategy, contract management) or; • which need more updates (e.g. more comprehensive coverage and LCC for GPP, actual cases for socially responsible public procurement and innovation procurement) When publishing the competency model, a portal or document should be set up so that people can see all the available training and materials for each competence. (or study guide for each competence for professional development).	MoF, RTK, Ministry of Climate, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, Estonian Business and Innovation Agency	Short - Medium
14	P	Excellence award system	Estonia does not have excellence award system for varieties of categories to recognise the achievements of contracting authorities and/or individual public procurement officials. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications has the plan to establish innovation procurement excellence award system.	Estonia could consider establishing an excellence award system for the public procurement workforce for varieties of categories.	MoF	Medium
15	P	Professional network	Currently, Estonia has a network of innovation procurement as well as an informal CPB network. However, the country does not have a nation-wide professional network for the public procurement workforce for various specific procurement topics	Estonia could consider establishing a nation-wide professional network for the public procurement workforce.	MoF	Long
16	P	Collaboration with knowledge centres	Currently, Estonia introduced collaborative approaches with knowledge centres in thesis contexts and occasional internship opportunities. However, there is great potential to enhance collaboration such as developing procurement courses and degrees.	Estonia could further promote collaborative approach with knowledge centres such as developing procurement courses and degree programs.	MoF	Long

Note: (*) S: Overall strategic procurement / GPP: Green Public Procurement, SRPP: Socially responsible public procurement, IP: Innovation procurement, P: professionalisation,

(**) Short term: recommendations could be implemented within the next 12 months,

Medium term: recommendations could be implemented between 1 to 3 years,

Long term: recommendations could be implemented in more than 3 years.

Source: Created by the author