| 4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
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In the setting-up and implementation of SNCP, a master plan was elaborated, with several actions:
a. A roadshow in the major Portuguese cities intended to enlighten CA, public servants, economic operators or commercial associations, and to explain the mission and role of ANCP, the objectives and coverage of the System and the expected functions of each part. The roadshow started in Nov. 2009 and ended in Apr. 2010. 8 events were held in 7 cities, with around 1,200 participants from more than 500 public and private organizations.
b. Training sessions and capacity building seminars to improve skills in the handling of eProcurement tools, for procurement officials, but also to improve the knowledge about SNCP and the use of FA. These actions are included in the annual action plan of the Agency, and some of them are targeted to a specific universe, for instance, Ministry of Education and schools. It is an ongoing process, started in 2008.
c. Annual Conferences on Public Procurement, with national and international experts, aiming to present the status of the reform and the evolution of the System. These occasions allowed also the sharing of experiences and the gathering of feedback from the users. Two Conferences were held, one in July 2009 and the other in March 2011, on average each with around 1,000 attendants from 400 different organizations.
d. Presence of ANCP directors and officials in several events, seminars and conferences, both at local and international level.
e. Bilateral exchange of experiences with other European agencies, UMC's and counterparties, to relate common practices, processes and strategies, enlarging public procurement vision.
Despite ANCP and UMC, other players were relevant in the change management plan, either in their organizations or considering their institutional role in the reform. It is now consensual that the result of the Portuguese eProcurement is largely due to the constructive commitment of all stakeholders, from public to private:
Contracting Entities | Economic Operators | Public eTendering Platform Operators | External Auditors for Platform's compliance auditing | National Certification Office of e-Tendering Platforms | eSPap | National Portal for Public Contracts Portal Base and INCI |UMC, the Ministerial Purchasing Units | Lawyers | PP external consultants | Court of Auditors | Administrative Courts | Media | Political Institutions | EU.
Working under the orientation of the Ministry of Finance, ANCP was responsible for setting-up SNCP, give guidance and orientation to the UMC and coordinate an Interministerial Advisory Committee (CIC), responsible for the approval of the National Purchasing Plan and the annual report on the Savings obtained by SNCP, upon ESPAP's aggregation of information and calculation.
The endorsement from the Ministry of Finance from the first moment of the process was crucial to promote its implementation across Public Administration CA, at every level.
Also, the legislation on public procurement and eProcedures published in the early times of the process forced its fast implementation pace, allowing Portugal to significantly climb in the international rankings for transparency and eGovernment.
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| 5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
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The stakeholders of the SNCP have played a key role in its successful implementation. For a start, the endorsement of every Minister of Finance has been crucial to raise awareness to the system, its features and its benefits among their peers, and to promote its set up and implementation across public administration.
UMC have also been pivotal along the process, given this system is based on a net-type working design. Although ESPAP may contact directly with all contracting authorities that belong to the system (and actually provides direct support to them), UMC are responsible for running aggregated call-offs under ESPAP’s FA for all the entities under their umbrella. They are also in charge of collecting info on public purchasing and public expense from the entities that belong to their respective Ministry and send it to ESPAP, on request.
The SNCP could not run without the suppliers and their commitment to its success and compliance with the rules of the FA they belong to. Also, they have on several occasions shown their support to ESPAP’s activities and public events, like the sponsorship of the Public Procurement Conferences held by ANCP in 2009 and 2011.
The ePlatform service providers have also played a key role in the set up and implementation of the SNCP, allowing it to become a 100% paper free procedure.
There is also a set of public and private entities which provide specific support to ESPAP during the design and preparation of each FA so as to assure their compliance with every legal and/or technical rule in that sector or category.
Another important group of stakeholders is the Interministerial Advisory Committee, with members from every Ministry and from the Budget Commission who advise ESPAP on ground rules and SNCP and validate any report produced by ESPAP on Public Procurement.
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| 6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
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In order to support the eProcurement and the Public Procurement reforms, a legal framework was produced using principles governing public procurement and eProcurement in the EU and in multilateral organizations, like OECD, World Bank or EBRD. The legal regime was the ground for a trustworthy system and incorporated some specific features like eSignature; documents transmission, opening and warehousing or time and deadlines management with timestamps. In a short set of legislation focused on reliability, different instruments were created with different purposes, but aiming to produce an integrated package. This set of legislation was established between 2007 and 2008, and finally eProcurement became mandatory as of Nov. 1st 2009. In order to enforce the change, severe consequences were established for non-compliance: Contracts formed through a non-eProcurement tool ("paper-based procedure") were null and void and also disciplinary sanctions (i.e. fines) towards public entity management could be applied. From then on, all types of procurement performed by the Portuguese public entities in all levels of the administration, from central to local, no matter their nature, must be conducted through eprocurement tools.
In the PPP Reform, eProcurement was a strategic tool for delivering envisaged results. From the definition of ANCP's top priorities to the regulations that supported the legislative pack, eProcurement was in the front line. eProcurement was considered one of the most relevant measures and a key driver to transform and rebirth public procurement in Portugal.
In the definition of the eProcurement strategy, the main focus was to cover the central components of the procurement chain, namely tendering and awarding phases. Another major goal was to promote and enhance transparency and information to stakeholders and citizens. Following the reform, all public contracts awarded ought to be published in a web portal.
Other components were also added to SNCP, like eAggregation and eCatalogue, or a reporting and monitoring system for obtaining savings and evaluating the performance of the FA. These additional tools are used by ESPAP for the management of the SNCP and made available to the entities in the SNC at no cost, namely an ePlatform for all CA to launch procedures under ESPAP’s FA.
Also, as the system is financed by fees paid by the suppliers, these tools were necessary to calculate the turnover of acquisitions under the FA, allowing the validation of its usage and the invoicing to the suppliers.
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| 7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
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One of the most significant outputs that was crucial for the success of the implementation of the SNCP was the legal framework built in between 2007 and 2009. Part of it was based on European legislation but a significant part as national legislation, like the setup of the SNCP and the creation of ANCP.
Among other benefits, this legal framework brought strict rules which led to a significant improvement in the levels of transparency in procurement procedures in Public Administration, increased levels of competition among suppliers and therefore allowing public CA to buy better, i.e, at better prices and improve buying terms, leading to an improved control of public expenditure. Report and monitoring systems were also key in the process.
The focus on aggregated contracting procedures was also very important to improve the buying terms of public CA, as it allowed CA to enhance their negotiation power with suppliers.
Also, the implementation of the SNCP and its environmental concerns promoted an change of buyers’ mindset towards an increased importance of using (also) green award criteria.
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| 8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
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The monitoring of the system has always been perceived as crucial, as a way of evaluating to what extent it was matching its objectives, and the need to make any required adjustments, as well as to clearly understand its impact in Public Procurement and in Public Administration procedures.
A set of reports was set up in order to allow cross-analysis. The main one was the National Public Procurement Plan (PNCP), a document prepared yearly by ESPAP based on data collected from UMC from the contracting authorities under the supervision of their Ministry. In this report, CA must provide data on the expected expenses per category, the procurement procedures they plan to launch in the following year, per category of goods and services, whether they intend to procure under any of ESPAP’s FA, and whether the procedures will be conducted by the respective UMC.
This information is to be cross-analyzed with the data submitted to ESPAP both by CA after the award phase of any procedure under one of ESPAP’s FA – award value of the contracts – and by suppliers – Invoicing report.
The fact that every procedure under a FA must be conducted in ePlatform regardless of the value of the procedure and that ESPAP makes available for free its own ePlatforms to every CA of the SNCP also provides further relevant data on public procurement.
Based on the data collected from the report on the value of the awards contracts, ESPAP calculates the annual savings achieved within the SNCP and elaborates a report that is approved by the Interministerial Advisory Committee (CIC) and delivered to the Minister of Finance.
Twice a year, ESPAP promotes a monitoring process within SNCP, analyzing actual procedures launched by UMC and major CA and associated public expenditure vs. what CA and UMC had planned and submitted in the PNCP.
Last but not least, every public contract must be publicized at Portal Base thus strongly promoting transparency in public procurement.
The permanent contact between CA and UMC with ESPAP also provide the latter with very useful insights on how the SNCP is working and on any obstacles / issues that need to be addressed.
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| 9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
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The Portuguese road towards eProcurement wasn't completely straightforward and without obstacles. In fact, the new legal framework, the mandatory use of electronic tools for tendering and awarding and the establishment of the SNCP were prevailing modifications that affected procurement officials, economic operators and public entities in a demanding new environment. The change to the new system caused disruption and changed habits and attitudes, especially when it comes to eProcurement and its set of tools.
Change management played a key role in the deployment of the process as it was clear that users lacked skills and resources, and the majority of the situations was new to everybody. The Code of Public Contracts was new, the creation of the Agency and of SNCP was recent, the use of eProcurement was unknown, the process was about to change for all.
The fear of loss of authority, loss of control of the procurement process especially when it related to aggregated procedures, the change of processes that had been running for many years, apparently in a successful and smooth way, all the new and strict regulations caused a very high level of resistant to the acceptance of the new procurement paradigm.
Each stakeholder played their part in the construction of a common knowledge and understanding. Some change management plans and training were designed, mostly by the major players, like ANCP, the Government or the ePlatform operators. Also some ad-hoc actions like explanatory roadshows and training sessions were conducted to improve users' visibility over the system and to reduce concerns and fears.
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