Public procurement procedure is changing

Government proposal for new public procurement act is planned to be given at the latest in June 2016 for the Finnish parliament based on directives 2014/23−25/EU on the award of concession contracts, public procurement and procurement by entities operating in the water, energy, transport and postal services sectors, and in order to change Finnish national law to be in accordance with the requirements of the directives.

Finnish Ministry of Employment and the Economy has given a bulletin on 3 March 2016 how to apply the public procurement legislation between the period when the new national legislation should have come in force (18 April 2016) and until the new national legislation comes into force.

The main goals of the new provisions are that

• provisions of public procurement procedure would be simplified, clarified and would be made more flexible
• possibilities to use procedures involving negotiations would be increased and brought closer to public procurements in practice
• use of public funds would be more efficient
• small and medium companies’ possibilities to participate in competitive bidding would improve
• possibilities to take environmental and social aspects into account would be enhanced
• equal treatment of the bidders would be ensured.

Object of the public procurement is the decisive factor with regard to the procedure that has to be applied by the contracting authority. Also the threshold matters, meaning whether the public procurement is less or more than the threshold.

The new procedures are the so called innovation partnership and public procurement based on framework agreements and dynamic purchasing systems through electronic catalogues.

Please contact attorney Juhani Tukia in any questions related to public procurements.