Improving Engagement with Procurement Information (NL0064)

Brief Description of the Commitment

On December 1, 2022, the public procurement platform ‘Rijksinkoop’ (Doing Business with the Government – Zakendoen met het Rijk) was launched online. The IRM review indicates that the potential of this platform can be further leveraged. This can be achieved, on one hand, by improving the information on the platform, and on the other hand, by expanding the scope of the platform to cover all aspects of government procurement, potentially including provinces and municipalities (leveraging function). This contributes to the expansion of public procurement information provided by the government and enhances the dialogue with external stakeholders. It increases the chances of obtaining the best possible bid for procurement with public funds and ensures that the procurement practices of the government are transparent and accessible.

Problem Definition

1. What problem does the commitment aim to address? • The government policy ‘Procuring with Impact’ (Inkopen met Impact), which combines government procurement with social objectives, requires significant knowledge and expertise from companies interested in such contracts. • If these companies are not informed in a timely manner about market tenders and lack the necessary information regarding the context of government procurement, the risk increases that the government will not receive optimal bids for its procurement. This can result in contracts that do not meet the desired quality standards.

2. What are the causes of the problem? • There are several causes contributing to the problem: 1. It is challenging for citizens, businesses, and interest groups to navigate the abundance of information regarding the integration of social objectives into government procurement. 2. It is unclear whom they can approach for inquiries related to the various topics associated with this integration. 3. Particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), they lack the business volume to build knowledge and expertise concerning the complexity of government procurement.

Commitment Description

1. What has been done so far to solve the problem? • With financial support from the EU, a platform called Open Inkoop (Doing Business with the Government – Zakendoen met het Rijk) has been developed. This platform provides a well-organized compilation of all public information about government procurement, ranging from the procurement strategy to the realized government contracts. Additionally, it indicates whom interested parties can contact for further information. • In addition, a calendar has been created that includes the procurement schedule. This allows companies and other stakeholders to look ahead for at least a year and see when market inquiries are planned.

2. What solution are you proposing? • To further improve the platform, we propose the following solutions: - Publishing the remaining category plans. - Developing a dialogue function to facilitate structured conversations between the government and external stakeholders. - Performing a GAP analysis to determine the missing desired information. - Organizing an app challenge where the winning app is used to promote the use of the platform. - Expanding the scope of the platform: on one hand, from generic procurement (as currently) to specific procurement, and on the other hand, from (central) government procurement to procurement by provinces and municipalities (with a leverage function).

3. What results do we want to achieve by implementing this commitment? • The desired outcome is that citizens, businesses, and other stakeholders are informed in a timely manner about the aspects of linking government procurement to social objectives. Moreover, they should be able to engage in a dialogue with the government on this topic. This not only contributes to an open government but also increases the likelihood of optimal use of taxpayer money.

Commitment Analysis

1. How will the commitment promote transparency? Access to data and information for citizens, businesses, and interest organizations will be improved through an open platform where the desired information is organized and explained in an accessible manner. Additionally, it will provide the opportunity to ask follow-up questions on the published information.

2. How will the commitment help foster accountability? By being transparent about how the government links government procurement to social objectives, both before and after the conclusion of government contracts, including the disclosure of suppliers and contract amounts. By organizing the information in a user-friendly manner, tailored to the needs of the users and the different stages of the procurement process, citizens can easily track the implementation and evaluation of the process.

3. How will the commitment improve citizen participation in defining, implementing, and monitoring solutions? By engaging in timely, active, and professional dialogue with external stakeholders, the government demonstrates its commitment to transparency and collaboration.

Commitment Planning (Milestones | Expected Outputs | Expected Completion Date)

Organizing an app challenge to stimulate the use of the platform using the winning app. | Market request for the app challenge and awarding the contract to the winning supplier. | 01-01-2024

Making the remaining category plans public. Developing a dialogue function to structure the conversation between the government and external stakeholders. | All category plans made public. Dialogue function, aligned by the government with external stakeholders. | 01-03-2024

Performing a GAP analysis to identify missing desired information. | GAP analysis. | 01-06-2024

Expanding the scope of the platform. On one hand, from generic procurement (current) to specific procurement. On the other hand, from government procurement to procurement by provinces and municipalities (leveraging function). | Broader scope of the platform. | 01-01-2026

Action Plan Review

Commitment 13. Open procurement

Commitment 13: Open Procurement (Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations)

For a complete description of the commitment, see Commitment 13 of the Netherlands 2023–2027 Action Plan.

Context and objectives

Building on the Dutch action plans’ previous open procurement efforts, [20] this commitment aims to continue efforts to ease companies’ and citizens’ access to central authorities’ procurement plans. By facilitating companies’ ability to apply for tenders, these efforts aim to increase central authorities’ chance of obtaining the best possible bid, therefore optimizing the use of taxpayer money. In addition, greater transparency can benefit oversight by government and civil society monitoring bodies. In 2024, the Court of Audit and Transparency International noted certain persistent deficiencies in government purchasing management. These included over EUR 108 million of unlawful tenders by the Ministry of Defense in 2023, extension of expired agreements due to planning issues, and approval of invoices without confirming the delivery of goods and/or services. [21]

In particular, the commitment focuses on Doing Business with the Government (Rijksinkoop), a public procurement platform launched in December 2022 under the fourth action plan [22] which intends to expand the information available on the platform and build an app to improve accessibility. The platform currently focuses on procurement information related to so-called category management i.e., goods and services that several ministries regularly use, such as office supplies, company clothes, catering, etc. The annual purchasing volume of the central government was about EUR 16 billion in 2023, of which approximately EUR 4.5 billion concerned 22 categories. Procurement plans for 14 of those categories are already published on the platform, listing a schedule and specifications for procurement in each category of goods and services. The platform also publishes information on government policy regulating the social impact of procurement, and answers to companies’ frequently asked questions. A separate platform, Tendernet, publishes the tenders themselves and information on bids won, while documents necessary to apply for a tender are on individual agency websites. [23]

This commitment was proposed by BZK and developed with civil society during the co-creation process. Supporting stakeholders include the Open State Foundation, which has previously taken a lead in procurement-related commitments, and the Open Contracting Partnership (OCP). From the Open State Foundation’s perspective, this commitment intersects with efforts to enhance the publication of government information in compliance with Woo.

Potential for results Modest

This commitment aims to make the remaining 8 of the 22 category plans available on Rijksinkoop in 2024. [24] Centralizing publication of all category plans would be a positive step towards making the public procurement portal a more comprehensive resource for companies that are interested in participating in central authorities’ procurement processes. To prepare for further improvements to the quality of information on public procurement, the commitment also plans for dialogue with companies, universities, interest groups, and local governments, [25] as well as an OCP gap analysis. The analysis will assess the government’s policy response to recommendations from an advisory report by Utrecht University Centre for Public Procurement that was released in an April 2022. ^[26]

In 2024, the commitment also plans for the development of an open source app that could improve the navigation of published information on government procurement. The app will address one of five thematic areas: climate, circularity, social return, international social conditions, or promoting innovation. A competition for developers to propose the app was opened from November 2023 to March 2024, offering a budget of EUR 25,000 to the winner. [27] The BZK anticipates that the app will use artificial intelligence to create a more efficient search engine to pull appropriate information for companies determining whether to participate in tenders. For instance, a company looking into a particular procurement rule could post a question within the app and receive an answer without having to sift through full documents. [28] This could address users' challenges when applying for procurement opportunities with central authorities, such as requisite knowledge of the Procuring with Impact Policy. [29] In Italy [30] and Indonesia, [31] the OCP has documented examples where procurement apps have enhanced monitoring, transparency, or sustainability of procurement.

The commitment also includes a milestone to expand categories of procurement information available on the platform, although the scope is unclear. The BZK reports that having begun with a platform focused on central government departments’ generic procurement (products and services all departments use, such as laptops), it is considering broadening the scope to include offices and specific procurement (products and services not used by every department, such as infrastructure projects or defense projects). However, the BZK does not have comprehensive jurisdiction over this. [32] Likewise, although the milestone states the intention to begin including procurement by provinces and municipalities, the BZK does not have the authority to introduce new publication requirements for these authorities. [33] At this stage, the BZK reports its intention to engage in dialogue with local government officials and share best practices to encourage improvements to their tendering processes on a voluntary basis. [34]

While addressing a promising area for reform, this commitment has modest potential for results. It would be a positive step to ensure that all central authorities’ category plans are published in a central online location. The Open State Foundation notes that given the Netherlands’ track record of publishing its public tenders online, there is a robust foundation for further development of public procurement transparency. [35] The commitment benefits from access to critical expertise from a range of stakeholders and a sufficient timeline to scale up the portal. However, achieving more ambitious outcomes would entail legislative reform requiring a broader range of procurement authorities, including in provinces and municipalities, to publish their information. Without new legislation, the commitment holders may not be able to address the current level of fragmentation beyond category plans. This means that small companies and civil society observers would likely continue struggling in navigating the bulk of procurement opportunities. [36]

Opportunities, challenges, and recommendations during implementation

Scaling up and involving more authorities on the procurement platform requires training and robust infrastructure. As mentioned in the action plan, the involvement of various stakeholders can support the necessary steps to ensure this infrastructure is maintained. In this context, collaboration with OCP to ensure that strong data standards are being used in the publication of procurement data is a positive step. Widening the release of procurement data offers an opportunity for benchmarking, detecting corruption and malpractices, as well as government and civil society collaboration in performance and pricing evaluation. Making data understandable and reusable can engage new vendors and make procurements more competitive.

To support this commitment’s objectives during implementation, the IRM recommends to:

Involve civil society in the development and evaluation of the dialogue function. This could include a feedback and complaints mechanism to flag irregularities in the procurement procedure, especially during the implementation phase. It could also include a question function for citizens to contact the purchasing authority. It can also offer a systematic channel for public requests to fill gaps in available procurement information.