Centralized Public Procurement Units – A Possibility To Improve Public Procurement Efficiency

Public procurement is a key element of the European Union (EU) single market from an economic point of view, facilitating contracting authorities’ selection of the best performing companies through qualification and selection criteria, in order to obtain the best cost-benefit ratio. In turn, this contributes to ensuring the competitiveness of markets and protects the public interest. From this perspective, public procurement stands out as a major and constant lever through which action can be taken for the transformation of our economies and societies.

The main objective of this paper is to provide a scientific perspective on how to approach centralised public procurement. The starting point is, the one hand, the reality of the EU single market, namely the fact that it is estimated that approximately two trillion euros, i.e. 14% of the EU’s gross domestic product, are spent annually on public procurement and, on the other hand, the current legislation. The way in which contracting authorities can manage public funds approved through their own revenue and expenditure budgets in order to provide goods or services necessary for the operation and/or realization of investments, forces us to look deeper into the research of the possibility of public institutions to purchase centrally. The purpose of centralizing purchases should be, on the one hand, to carry out public purchases of products or services in a centralized system and, on the other, to streamline the use of public funds by awarding framework agreements or public procurement contracts, regardless of whether or not the products or services target a public interest.