1 London, 30 April 2004 Working Group on Auction Design and Competitive Issues London, 30 April 2004

1 London, 30 April 2004

Working Group on Auction Design and Competitive Issues

London, 30 April 2004


Next steps of the EU Public Procurement Learning Lab

- Development of the Working Groups’ studies

- 3rd Meeting in September (Stockholm)

- 4th Meeting in November (Candidates?)


EU Lab’s participants - (for discussion)

Governance Organisation Main features Organisations

Large Administrations

• Their purchasing activity is essentially addressed to their own organisation• Product categories and services are consistent with

their own requirements

Ministry of Development (Greece)Ministry of Environment (Greece)

Central Purchasing

Bodies

• Their purchasing activity is addressed also to other public administrations• Product categories purchased are generally very

wide: Paper & Stationary; ITC products and services: Hard- and Software, Printers, Desktop + PCs & Maintenance; Photocopiers; Telephone Services; Cars; Facility Management; Transport & Postal Services; Furniture; Oil & Energy; Travel services; Food & Meal Coupons

Consip (Italy)BBG (Austria)

BESCHA (Germany)Swedish Agency for Public Management

(Sweden)OGC (UK)

Administration of State Material Reserves (Czech Republic)

Ministerio de Hacienda (Spain)Department of Finance (Ireland)

ABA (Belgium)National Procurement Ltd (Denmark)

Ministry of economy, finance and industry (France)

Authorities

• Their interest in public procurement is not due to direct purchase activity since their main object is to set the “rule” for the Public Sector Procurement. Their task are (in general): Assist the Public Administrations, Verify correct use of procurement procedures and practices, Make recommendations, Promote competition and transparency, Collect and publish statistical data on Public Procurement; Advocate other institutions in international contexts; implement the procurement legislation

Treasury of the Republic of Cyprus (Cyprus)

Office of Commissioner for Access to Public Information (Slovenia)

Council for Public Procurement (Hungary)

Bulgaria (Public procurement directorate)PPO (Poland)

Office for Public Procurement (Slovakia)


Referents from Consip

1. Giancarlo De [email protected]+ 39.06.85.449.627 (office)+ 39.329.66.05.444 (mobile)

2. Michele [email protected]+ 39.06.85.449.586 (office)+ 39.329.77.09.143 (mobile)

3. Matteo [email protected]+ 39.06.85.449.694 (office)+ 39.339.40.60.227 (mobile)

4. Laura [email protected]+ 39.06.85.449.696 (office)


Auction design Working Group - Index

Participants

Working plan

Questionnaire structure Preliminary remarks on the Questionnaire Glossary General information about the organisation Auction design and competitive issues

Introduction Auction design Competition


Participants in the Working Group

1. Italy2. Austria3. Belgium-ABA4. Czech Republic – Administration of the State Material

Reserves 5. Greece – Ministry of Development6. Greece – Ministry of Environment7. Finland8. Ireland9. Norway10. Slovakia11. Slovenia – Public Procurement Office12. Slovenia – Office of Commissioner for Access to Public

Information


Working programme

A M J J A S O N D

Distribution of Questionnaires

Filling in the Questionnaire

Collection

Elaboration

First Draft (Stockholm)

Final Report


Structure of the Questionnaire

Estimated time to fill the questionnaire in is around 2,5 d/p

Questionnaire

General information about your organisation

Preliminary remarks on the Questionnaires

Recommendations

A. Auction design

B. Competitive issues

Glossary


Glossary

Glossary: goals

• Facilitate the understanding of questions and to stimulate the attention of the reader

• To establish a common reference vocabulary

Glossary NOTICE: the aim of this glossary is to facilitate the understanding of questions and to stimulate the attention of the reader. For this reason, in order to help the identification of particular experiences, and to establish a common reference vocabulary, we also provide a comprehensive list of the most important kind of auctions treated by the economic theory. Auction: by Auction we refer to what in the EU directives is defined Open Procedure and Restricted Procedure a as well as to transposition of these procedures in Domestic Laws of EU Member States. These procedures are a particular kind of auctions that in auction theory is defined sealed bid auction. Open Procedure shall mean those national procedures whereby all interested providers may submit a tender in response to a notice placed in the Official Journal. This procedure is mainly used for simple procurement requirements. All tenders are considered, and the auctioneer selects the winner on the basis of pre-specified contract award criteria. Restricted Procedure shall mean those national procedures whereby only those providers invited by the authority may submit a tender. This is the most common procedure. The Auctioneer selects a limited number of tenders after .............


General part

General Part: goal

• To collect information about your organisation and some other details about activities and businesses

1. General Information on your Organization

a) Main activity: Stipulate national frame contracts, IT consultancy to the Ministry of Economy and Finance and to Public Administrations

b) Number of employees:

About 550

c) ……….


Preliminary remarks, Glossary and General part

Recommendations: goals

• To help while filling-in the questionnaire

• To achieve a homogeneous collection of information

2. RecommendationsThe questionnaire involves a wide range of aspects, such as juridical matters, business problems, theoretical features. Comprehensive answers may require to consult several colleagues involved in different areas within your institution, and a sharing of the answers given is advisable.

For a certain number of answers the support of data would be very useful; on the other hand providing detailed and accurate data is time-consuming, so a trade-off between time, amount of information and accuracy can be reasonable, bearing in mind that “rough data” are better than “no-data”.

Very often particular case studies and specific experiences may be very interesting and helpful for the final Report; for this reason it will be very valuable describing both general practices and specific cases which you deem interesting.

Please do not hesitate to contact Italian representatives for any clarification related to the questionnaire. In so doing, you will provide useful feedback that may help others to fill in the questionnaire in, and a more homogeneous collection of data.


Specific Part

A: Auction design - Consideration of the main aspects of the auction design

• Awarding Procedure• Lots• Length and division of contract• Reserve price• Participation requirement• Awarding criteria• Disclosure policy• Subcontracting

B: Competition

Methods to increase competition and own experience


Main issues - Auction Design

Awarding Procedure

• Many possible “formats” available, difficult choice

• Possible standardization operated by legislation, tradition or other factors

• Importance of exceptions and particular experiences

• New possibilities with electronic auctions

• Package bidding



Lots and Length of contracts

Effect on participation and competition of:

• splitting contracts into numerous lots

• different lengths of contracts

Awarding criteria

• Lowest price or most economically advantageous offer? Why? When?



Disclosure policy

• The effect of disclosing more or less information to possible bidders on competition and collusion

• Role of dialogue with enterprises in auction design


Main issues - Competition

• How to measure competition and the auction’s performance

• Relationship with Antitrust Authority

• Competition vs. quality

Documents

1 London, 30 April 2004 Working Group on Auction Design and Competitive Issues London, 30 April 2004