Professional Buying Organisations, Sustainability and Competition in Public Procurement Performance

Abstract

The substantial purchasing power of public organizations has been recognized only recently and to-date it is not oriented effectively toward specific strategies. This seems to be linked to the fragmentation of procuring entities. The paper deals with an analysis of the organizational models for collaborative procurement and their role as stimulators of innovation. The aim is to clarify the changing structure of public procurement procedures awarded by Professional Buying Organisations (PBOs) in relation to market-driving, ICT tools, social and environmental strategies.

Purchases aggregation entails reduction of human resources involved in the award procedures, thus allowing them to be assigned the task of monitoring contracts performance and possible infringements. Any breach of contract in the performance phase if not challenged by the procuring entity - who accepts partial or less costly fulfilment-, turns into an amendment to the subject matter of the contract, hence hindering free competition rules and principles. It seems important to allow unsuccessful bidders to have a role in monitoring the execution of the contract, so as to guarantee compliance with the contract conditions set in the award, as well as end users by means of customer satisfaction surveys and monitoring.

Keywords: public procurement, secondary considerations, IT tools

JEL Classification: H57