On the first two days of the Advanced Training Course, we addressed what public procurement is, its structure, dynamics, regulations, and the role of sustainability. 

Session 1: Introduction to Public Procurement

The first day of the first SAPIENS Advanced Training Course (ATC) started with a presentation on public procurement structure and objectives from our Director of Training Prof. Martin Trybus. Martin introduced and characterized the various stages of the life-cycle of a procurement process. This session was centred around the reasons for regulation of this activity and whether adding sustainable considerations in procurement compromises efficiency and value for money. 

Following Prof. Trybus’ presentation, our Network Coordinator Prof. Roberto Caranta presented a brief introduction to EU Public Procurement Law. Throughout his presentation, he pointed out the interdisciplinary nature of public procurement and advised the newly appointed researchers that a compromise should be found with what is “economically sensible but also lawful”. To point out the importance of litigation he established the law is just the “starting point” but the potential is actualized with the interpretation.

“EU law has evolved because of litigation” 

Watch Martin Trybus’ and Roberto Caranta’s full presentation below.

Session 2: Transparency and Public Procurement Award Procedures

In our next session, Prof. Trybus and our Dissemination and Communication Lead Associate Prof. Marta Andhov presented the different kinds of public procurement procedures under UNCITRAL Model Law and in the Directive 2014/24/EU (Public Sector Directive).

Our presenters discussed the role and effects of the contract dynamics, the contracting authorities’ discretional actions, and the possibility of negotiation. After a thorough comparison of open and restricted procedures, they identified the scenarios in which more restricted procedures are to be used, and the settings for which unrestricted and flexible public procurement is necessary. Prof. Trybus emphasized how ,through the use of different procedures, the legislation tries to take “different constellations and markets into account to provide the procurement officer with a right procedure.  

“Different markets are taken into account to provide the procurement officer with a right procedure” Martin Trybus

Watch Marta Andhov’s and Martin Trybus’ full presentation below.

Session 3: Tech Specs, Qualifications, Award, Performance Issues

For this session, Prof. Caranta and Prof. Andhov went deep into the technical requirements at each phase of public procurement, making the point that sustainability concerns can be included from the starting point of deciding what to buy.

The session starts by describing the role of technical specifications, labels, qualifications, and contract performance, and continues with a discussion on the award criteria and sustainability considerations. Prof. Andhov indicated that for 70% of the procurement procedures, the lowest price is the only award criteria. She invited the participants to challenge the idea of sustainability being a “secondary” concern in public purchasing.

“if you are racing to the bottom that means you push the cost somewhere else”

Watch  Marta Andhov’s and Roberto Caranta’s full presentation below.

Session 4: Case Study Probity and Anti-Corruption Measures

Session 4 was carried out by Prof. Martin Trybus and it was an exercise to better understand corruption within the scope of public procurement.

The ESRs were divided into two groups. One group was asked to design procedures that would enable corruption opportunities, and the other was asked to be prepared to reject said procedure on the basis of EU law.

After the exercise, Prof. Trybus led a discussion on the problem of corruption within the realm of public procurement.

Session 5: Scope and Coverage

For our fifth session, following his exercise on probity and anti-corruption measures, Prof. Trybus gave a comprehensive description of the scope of public procurement law. On the importance of the coverage and scope of procurement law from a legal standpoint, Martin Trybus says.

“One of the most important issues in legal disputes about Public Procurement” 

During his presentation, Prof. Trybus characterized the main EU procurement directives that are part of procurement law. He went deep into both the entities and the kind of contracts that are subject to it, and the specific contracts that are left out. Throughout the session, we investigated how EU procurement law was structured and what kind of entities are affected by it.

Watch Martin Trybus’ full presentation below.

Session 6: The Economics of Public Procurement

Following Prof. Trybus’ presentation on the scope and coverage of procurement law, Prof. Davide Vannoni introduced the economics of public procurement for Session 6. He addressed the question of how the economic method helps to move the public procurement discussion forward. Prof. Vannoni highlighted the importance of empirical and theory-based economic research for a smarter policy design at the different stages of procurement. On the relevance of the economic method for public procurement research, Davide Vannoni affirms:

“There are at least 4 Nobel Laureates in Economics for contributions in Public Procurement”

Prof. Vannoni introduced key concepts that are necessary to make sense of public procurement from an economics standpoint, emphasized the role of economic research in fostering a more efficient and competitive procurement, and presented key economic studies on the field. Furthermore, Vannoni discussed the mainstream techniques and methods to produce high-level quantitative evidence in economics and highlighted the importance of sound statistical approaches to produce solid arguments in quantitative work related to procurement.

Watch Davide Vannoni’s full presentation below.

Session 7: The Law of SDGs: making sense of the legal literature

For our seventh session, Prof. Andhov assesses the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their relationship with Sustainable Public Procurement.  

“We are not to develop our life at the cost of decreasing the quality of life for next generations” Marta Andhov

During her presentation, Prof. Andhov also addressed the role of international law in creating a more sustainable public procurement and the potential impact of the EU Green Deal. On the effect that it could have on public procurement, Marta Andhov underscores:

“We potentially are at a shifting moment, moving from the space of voluntary sustainability actions into mandatory ones”

Watch Marta Andhov’s full presentation below.

Session 8: The Law of SDGs: making sense of the legal literature

For Session 8, Professor Francesco Quatraro invited us to keep on exploring the topic of sustainability transition, and in particular, the economic aspects of it.

“We need a framework to combine economic growth with all the dimensions of sustainability” Francesco Quatraro

Quatraro introduced the mainstream understanding of economic growth -and the place sustainability has within it- and it uses it as a baseline to explore: What can (cannot) traditional economic approaches tell us about the sustainability problem? How can we extend the concept of externalities to include the complex nature of sustainability? What is the connection between innovation and the sustainability transition? What are the roles of the market, firms’ incentives, and policy?

Watch Francesco Quatraro’s full presentation below.

Session 9: Round table – The international dimension of SPP

This round table on the international dimension of SPP was integrated by Anna Lupi, Giusepe Casale and Farid Yaker and composed of three precentations:

Public procurement and the Green Deal (Lupi, DG GROW)

Anna Lupi from the Commission DG GROW gave an overview of the state of play of public procurement in the EU, with particular attention to sustainability aspects. She presented some key objectives of the Public Sector Directive, which in addition to the traditional goal of guaranteeing fair competition among operators, also aims at helping public buyers to increasingly use public procurement to support their social and policy goals. 

Lupi explained that the Commission has been working on the development of tools for green public procurement (GPP) and socially responsible public procurement (SRPP), trying to merge these two aspects of sustainability. She then illustrated the legal framework of Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP) and the problems associated with Article 18(2) of the Public Sector Directive . Lupi discussed the changing role of the Commissionover the years, from being the guardian of member states’ compliance to EU legislation to assisting them in implementing public procurement policies.

Social rights and development (Casale, ITCILO)

Giuseppe Casale, Deputy Director of the International Training Center of ILO, presented some key points of ILO core conventions, in particular of Convention 94. He highlighted the problem of balancing social and labour rights with economic freedoms. He added that European sectoral collective agreements and the autonomy of the social partners may help to fight wage dumping and social dumping. He then discussed the recent ILO Centenary Declaration for the Future of Work, on the universal recognition of adequate working conditions for all workers and its relation with public procurement. 

Policy commitments to the SDGs: the UN env approach (with focus on developing countries) (Yaker, UNEP)

Farid Yaker explained in detail the UNEP methodology used to assist governments in implementing Sustainable Public Procurement consisting of a preliminary status assessment on SPP, followed by an analysis of the legal and policy contexts, as well as of the financial structure. Based on this analysis, they select a range of priority products to develop SPP Policy and Action Plans, by building alignment and collaboration among the institutions, improving the dialogue with the market and civil society, providing incentives and setting monitoring and control mechanisms. Yaker also shared the outcomes of UNEP’s first data collection exercise, conducted in February 2021 to measure the SDG indicator 12.7.1. where 40 governments responded by providing a report and relative evidence of their progress in SPP. He explained in detail the formula that UNEP developed to conduct the measurement and give a score to each country. In line with the previous speakers, Yaker stressed the need to assess the actual percentage of sustainable purchasing and to define what is considered a “sustainable purchase”. He concluded his presentation by briefly presenting UNEP’s and UNDP’s joint work on the ESG-weighted procurement portfolio model.

Session 10: The Law of SDGs: making sense of the legal literature

For the final section on procurement fundamentals, Prof. Lorenza Mola and Prof. Cristina Poncibò addressed the issue of sustainability and global trade law and presented their interdisciplinary research exploring how international public law and contract law interact and interplay in advancing the SDGs (Mola and Poncibò; 2021). Professor Mola pointed out that in the field of international law, SDGs consist of shared principles included in a non-binding UN Resolution, as well as in codes of conduct and emerging international legal obligations. In private law, similarly, SDGs are present in codes of conduct, which is soft-law, and in the sustainability contractual clauses. Prof. Mola explained that in public international law, private actors and multinational enterprises (MNEs) have the status of indirect addressees of treaty obligations, through their incorporation in domestic law and they have an important role since they may choose to adhere to internationally-established codes of conduct. 

Prof. Poncibò continued the discussion by addressing how private contracts approach the issue. Within private law, she noticed, the concern about SDGs appeared later than in public law because of the traditional understanding that private law is the domain of freedom.

“SGDs can be achieved by a cooperation of public and private actors” 

The session was followed by the role of CSR and codes of conduct and how the trend is moving towards contractual clauses embedding sustainability in contracts. She raised the issue of the principle of the privity of contract, which limits consistently the possibilities of third parties (e.g. consumers associations, NGOs, local communities etc.) to enforce a sustainability clause included in a contract.

Watch Lorenza Mola’s and Cristina Poncibò’s full presentation below.