Digitalization and transparency of public procurement: Portugal's experience, adopted by Ukraine

Centralized contract management within procurement and implementation of public-private partnerships were key topics of discussion during a study tour of representatives of Ukrainian authorities involved in procurement control to Lisbon (Portugal). The event took place from March 12 to 14 with the support of the “Continuation of the Public Finance Management Support Programme in Ukraine (EU4PFM)” project.

In addition to representatives of the Accounting Chamber, the Ukrainian delegation included colleagues from the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, the State Audit Service of Ukraine, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine, and the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. In particular, the training sessions were attended by Olena Bilyachenko, Chief Specialist of the Economic Control Department of the Department of Control (Audit) in the Field of Economy, Digital Transformation, Protection of Economic Competition, and State Property Management.

During the working trip, Ukrainian civil servants met with representatives of the Portuguese Institute of Public Markets, Real Estate, and Construction, which is responsible for the implementation of public procurement in Portugal. They discussed the functioning of the Portuguese national procurement system, in particular regulatory and legal aspects, the operation of the electronic procurement portal, and the implementation of horizontal policies, such as «green» and socially responsible procurement.

Representatives of the Public Procurement Service of the Ministry of Health of Portugal and the Public Procurement Service in the field of public administration told in detail to Ukrainian colleagues about the features of centralized procurement in the field of health care and public administration. Among the main aspects - the importance of using analytical data on procurement and standardization of processes - this increases their convenience for customers.

Representatives of the company Infraestruturas de Portugal, which is responsible for managing the transport infrastructure of Portugal,  and the government unit for supporting public-private partnerships UTAP shared their experience in implementing relevant projects. The mechanisms of control and financial planning that allow for the effective attraction of private capital without losing state control were discussed.

The knowledge gained will help the specialists of the Accounting Chamber to improve approaches to working with audits that involve the analysis of the public procurement system or have a procurement component, in particular, the analysis of the annual report of the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, which contains an analysis of the functioning of the public procurement system and generalized information on the results of control in the procurement sector.