E-SUBMISSION MANDATORY IN FLANDERS

Acronym of the case:

esubinflanders

Web address of the case:

http://www.governance-flanders.be/public-proc...

Country of the case:

Belgium

City/region:

Flanders

Posting Date:

4 July 2012

Last Edited Date:

16 July 2012

Author:

VAN STEELANDT JOHAN (Department Public Governance Flemish Administration)

e-submission | E-notification | mandatory

Type of initiative

Project or service
Strategic initiative

Case Abstract

The Flemish Government made e-submission mandatory for both purchasers and economic operators from the 1st of January 2012 onwards.
At this moment (Juin 2012) 85% of the received tenders were submitted electronically. (See graphs in gallery!) The Flemish administrations calculated that the administrative burdens for the economic operators are reduced with 80%. Efficiency on the side of the purchasers increased due to the electronic availability of the documents and the electronic opening sessions.

The Flemish Government is monitoring the project with three indicators published on internet. http://www.governance-flanders.be/e-procurement-figures

Although some projects from other European countries claimed costs reductions due to the increasing number of tenders, there is no evidence for that in Flanders. The average number of tenders per public contracts remained 5.7 last year.

Description of the case

Domain

eGovernment

Topic

eProcurement

Sector

Procurement

Start date - End date

January 2012 (Ongoing)

Date operational

January 2012

Target Users

Administrative | Business (self-employed) | Business (industry) | Business (SME)

Target Users Description

For e-enotification and e-submission the target group are the Flemish purchasers, the local purchasers, the economic operators.

The economics operators (enterprises and SME's) are strongly interested in finding the public contracts (e-notification) and the electronic submisson of their tender. (e-submission).

The Flemish and Belgian e-procurement teams launched a strong communication plan to motivate purchasers and economic operators.

The Flemish purchasers: 85 public authorities, yearly announcing more or less 2000 public contracts (above Belgian threshold). The local purchasers: more than 400 local authorities, yearly announcing more or less 6000 public contracts (above Belgian threshold).

The economic operators: all Belgian and foreign SME's and great companies participations at the Belgian public market.

Scope

National | Regional (sub-national)

Status

Operation

Language(s)

Dutch | English | French | German

Policy Context and Legal Framework

The Flemish Government made an agreement with the federal Belgian policy level.

The same portal for e-procurement www.publicprocurement.be is available for all economic operators and purchasers. All public contracts are notified on this platform (https://enot.publicprocurement.be/) . The tenders are submitted on the platform https://eten.publicprocurement.be/

The Flemish Government made e-submission mandatory, both for purchasing authorities and economic operators.

The Flemish Government and administrations made a great effort on training and communication. These administrations implemented the e-procurement policy as quick as possible and in an ambitious way.

E-submission can only be successfully when both the purchasers and the enterprises are motivated to use the electronic procedure. The Flemish Agency which supported the enterprises implemented an action plan. Road shows, training sessions, leaf lets and guidelines were set up or distributed to communicate the Flemish policy on e-procurement.

The central entity for e-procurement, in cooperation with KPMG, calculated the reduction of the administrative burdens with 80%. (For the total of Belgian announced public contracts this yearly reduction is estimated at 8.000.000 €.)
Also the efficiency costs were calculated. Only when e-submission is mandatory for both purchasers and enterprises efficiency will increase. When e-submission is only mandatory for the purchasing entities, they'll be confronted with both paper and electronic tenders and will have to manage two processes. In this case efficiency will decrease. This decrease is calculated, in cooperation with KPMG, at 268 € per public contract.
These figures might seem low, especially in comparison with several launched general studies. The reality shows however that often the announced reductions of the administrative burdens and the savings of efficiency and direct costs are overestimated.

The Flemish government decided to evaluate the results of the implementation of the mandatory e-submission by the monitoring of three indicators.
http://www.governance-flanders.be/e-procurement-figures

Project Size and Implementation

Type of initiative

IT infrastructures and products

Overall Implementation approach

Partnerships between administration and/or private sector and/or non-profit sector

Technology choice

Mainly (or only) open standards

Funding source

Public funding national | Public funding regional

Project size

Implementation: Not applicable/not available

Yearly cost:

€49-299,000

Implementation and Management Approach

1.
First of all the Flemish Government took 4 decisions on e-procurement. With the two last decisions (2011 and 2012) they decided to make e-submission mandatory. The first and the second decisions focused on an agreement with the federal Belgian level and an action plan.
The decisions of the Flemish Government created a general support to implement e-procurement and e-submission.

2.
The agreement with the federal government aimed to avoid a proliferation of e-procurement platforms. The availability of central public platforms has two advantages: it's not necessary to build own platforms for the regional and local authorities, the economic operators - which are often the same for the several policy levels - are only confronted with one platform.

3.
We've set up several partnerships.
Making e-submission mandatory is only possible when several partners will share the same objectives. The central entity on e-procurement set up partnerships with the other policy levels (Belgian authorities, the other regional and local authorities...), the private actors (representives of the companies and the private training institutions), the Agency for Enterprise Flanders, and the Agency for Internal Affairs.

4.
A great effort is made on training and communication
The last few years more than 1000 civil servants and more than 1500 economic operators were trained or informed by the Flemish entity for e-procurement.
Together with the training efforts of the federal and local policy level and the efforts of the private training institutions it means that the required investments on training are very high.

5.
The results of the policy on e-procurement, and especially on e-submission, were followed by the monitoring of three indicators.
- The percentage of public contracts with e-submission allowed and mandatory. (94%, May 2012)
- The percentage of tenders submitted with the electronic procedure (82%, May 2012)
- The number of tenders per public contract (5.7, May 2012)
These figures are available for each entity of the Flemish Administration.

Technology solution

As already described the Flemish Administration is using the federal e-procurement platforms.
These applications are built with open standards.

www.publicprocurement.be
https://enot.publicprocurement.be/
https://eten.publicprocurement.be/

Impact, innovation and results

Impact

The main results of a mandatory e-submission are:

1. Increased transparency,
2. Increased accessibility,
3. A reduction of the administrative burdens (side economic operators)
4. A reduction of the efficiency costs (side purchasing authorities)
5. No direct savings. (No increasing number of tenders)

1. Increased transparency
There is a significant increase of transparency. The public announcement of a contract with all documents available on the platform, the publishing on internet of the reports of the opening sessions,... Without any doubt, it increases the transparency.

2. Increased accessibility
The platform provide in a daily mail service with relevant announcements for companies. The direct accessibility to the esubmission platform is very short.
It increases the accessibility to public contracts.

3. The reduction of administrative burdens
As mentioned above there is an important reduction of the administrative burdens on the side of the economic operators. The measurement shows that, yearly, the administrative burdens can be reduced with 8.000.000 € for all Belgian public contracts which are announced. This can only be reached after a period of investments in training and communication.

4. The reduction of the efficiency costs.
As mentioned above there is an important reduction of the efficiency costs. We calculated an average of 268€ per contract. A very important restriction had to be made: only when purchasing authorities make e-submission mandatory for the economic operators this growing efficiency will occur. If e-submission is only mandatory for the purchaser and facultative for the submitting company, efficiency costs will increase due to the managing costs of both processes.

5. No direct savings due to increasing number of tenders
For 18 months we've analyzed the figures of our third indicator monitoring the number of tenders per public contract. There is no evidence for an increasing number of tenders per public contract. The average number is situated between 5.5 and 6.
Although a few countries announced an increasing number of tenders per public contract due to the use of e-procurement (e-submission), it remains very doubtful that the electronic procedure as such is responsible for that increasing number of tenders. Probably, for example, the deteriorating economic situation of a country and the reorientation of companies to the public sector seems much more responsible for that.

Track record of sharing

The governmental decisions, the choice to make e-submission mandatory, the partnership with federal, regional and local authorities, the action plan on training, the communication to purchasers and economic operators, the following of the results by indicators: all topics which can be multiplied and copied in an easy way.

Lessons learnt

The four lessons learnt:

1. Make e-submission mandatory.
2. Follow the results with indicators, and adjust the project if necessary.
3. Coordinate the purchasing authorities on a high level
4. Organize training

1. Make e-submission mandatory
Only when e-submission is mandatory for purchasers and for economic operators the use of the electronic procedure will increase spectacularly on the short term. Flemish government did so.

2. Follow the results with indicators
Only when there are reports which presents information about the readiness of the purchasers and the companies, the policy makers can manage the action plan.
Flemish policy on e-procurement became more ambitious due to the quick progress made by the economic operators.

3. Training
More than 1000 civil servants and more than 2000 economic operators were informed or trained in the modalities of e-submission.
The helpdesk, permanently available, and the great capacity to set up training sessions, in cooperation with private actors, are crucial to make e-submission successfully.

4. Coordination of the purchasing authorities
If there is no coordination of the several actions of the purchasing authorities, there will be a great risk that e-procurement is perceived as diffuse and not coordinated. It's very important that e-submission has deadlines and a well-defined transition period.

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practice E-SUBMISSION MANDATORY IN FLANDERS