More effective procurement through cooperation
The estimated annual volume of public procurement in Finland is some €35 billion. As this is a significant amount of money, public procurement is considered one of the means to improve the sustainability of general government finances and promote social goals, such as
- Sustainable development
- Innovation
- Climate targets
- Social aspects
- Competence development
- Distribution of best practices
- Environmental aspects
- Social employment
- Status of domestic food
- Development of technology
- Life cycle economy
- Quality
- Responsibility
- Bilingualism
In September 2019, the Ministry of Finance launched the operational programme Effective Public Procurement (Vaikuttavat julkiset hankinnat) or Procurement Finland (Hankinta-Suomi) in collaboration with the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities. The operational programme focuses on the Procurement Finland forum, which consists of the strategic management of a variety of public organisations. They will prepare a Finnish public procurement strategy that will be published in the autumn of 2020. The programme’s implementation stage will end at the end of 2023.
The operational programme’s broader goals are:
- Better utilisation of procurement management as a strategic tool in the achievement of the organisations’ goals.
- Promoting cooperation between the central government, the regional authorities and other purchasing bodies to share expertise and set common goals.
- Promoting cooperation between ministries to avoid silos in public procurement and ensure that actions in different administrative sectors can be coordinated as efficiently as possible.
Hansel is strongly involved in Procurement Finland: the company has representatives in the programme’s steering group, caucus and preparation working group. In future, Hansel will support, through its services, the implementation of the national procurement strategy and the achievement of the programme’s goals.