Accelerating Transparency and Efficiency in the Public Procurement Sector for a Smarter Society: eNotification and ESPD Integration for Developing E-procurement

Abstract

The Member States of the European Union are committed to pursuing objectives of innovation and transformation of public procurement processes. Their goal is to foster transparent relations between citizens, organizations, and institutions and the principle of mobility within the single market. Digital technologies are playing a decisive role to reach these objectives, also from a social and environmental sustainability point of view. The main goal of the eNEIDE initiative is to upgrade the Italian eProcurement ecosystem with a special focus on the eNotification process. In detail, the publication flows at national and EU level collapse into one, through the implementation of an e-sender from the national Contract Register to the EU publication platform TED (Tenders Electronic Daily). On the other end, the adoption of the OCDS Open Contracting Data Standard for the publication of open data on ANAC’s web portal aims at fostering citizen’s and NGO engagement in the governance of public procurement. The upgrade of two regional public procurement platforms complements the process and offers a means to test some additional eNotification instruments, like the EU single procurement document and the eCertis service. The project interprets the need to achieve a digital transformation of the public contracts sector (e-Procurement) to increase transparency, efficiency and effectiveness of public spending, the quality of the interaction between economic operators and the public administration and the economic and social growth in the European area. It simplifies the access to public procurement, eliminating bureaucratic constraints and ensuring legal interoperability between different jurisdictions. This transformation benefits in first instance small and medium enterprises (SMEs), allowing them to look for business opportunities and to sell their products and services with less bureaucratic costs, in less time as well as progressively exceeding the limited boundaries of a market that was previously only territorial or national. These innovative infrastructures are making the single European market more competitive in the world economic scenario. Another common goal on which there has been much discussion is the use of ICT to achieve environmental sustainability purposes. The ICT can contribute to the achievement of these smart objectives changing the way of working and conducting business. E-procurement projects are often part of the wider e-government efforts to serve citizens and businesses, so it is fundamental to promote and train civil servants to better governance in public procurement by increasing transparency and eliminating opportunities for fraud and corruption. The use of digitalization supports changes in the way public administrations deliver their activities, communicate, and provide services, but can also have a more extensive impact such as changing the structure and culture of an organization, or engaging and integrating facilities for citizens into the co-design and co-delivery of smarter public services.