OECD Recommendation
Facilitate access to procurement opportunities for potential competitors of all sizes.
- Have in place coherent and stable institutional, legal and regulatory frameworks, which are essential to increase participation in doing business with the public sector and key starting points to assure sustainable and efficient public procurement systems.
- Deliver clear and integrated tender documentation, standardised where possible and proportionate to the need.
- Use competitive tendering and limit the use of exceptions and single-source procurement.
Related Principles
Risks to public procurement related to access include:
- A use of exceptions to competitive tendering (direct awards, accelerated procedures, etc.), which restrains competition and undermines the administrative efficiency of procurement;
- Complex public procurement rules and the use of non-standardised bidding documents impede broad participation from potential competitors, including new entrants and SMEs; and
- Obstacles (regulatory burden, financial constraints, lack of technical expertise, request for bribes) faced by SMEs for participating in public procurement processes.
Related Tools
Pre-tendering
- Checklist to design tender methods to reduce bid rigging
- Criteria for selecting appropriate tender methods
- Guidelines for accelerated public procurement procedures
- Template and checklist for enhancing integrity in non-competitive tender method
- Template to solicit supplier information
Tendering
Post-award
Country Cases
Coherent and stable institutional, legal and regulatory frameworks
- Encouraging SMEs’ participation in public procurement in China
- Korea’s Bid rigging Indicator Analysis System, BRIAS
- Preventing bid-rigging in Japan
- Reducing red tape in the EU
- Reducing transaction costs for suppliers in Korea
- Simplification of Public Procurement Procedure in Spain: Self Declaration
- Small business subcontracting in the United States
- Time limit for submitting bids in the European Union (EU)
Clear and integrated tender documentation, standardised where possible and proportionate to the need
- Engagement with SMEs to reduce Red Tape in Ireland
- Government Model Contracts in New Zealand
- Inherently governmental and critical functions in the United States
- Preventing bid-rigging in Japan
- Suppliers Training Desks (STDs) in Italy
- Web-based interactive guide for cooperation in procurements in Sweden
- Mexico and the Open Contracting Data Standard
- Procurement forms published by the city of New Orleans in the United States
- ClauseBank (Australia)
- Mexico’s linked procurement systems, SAI and PREI, for IMSS
- Standard forms of contracts of FIDIC
- Streamlining the use of exceptions and simplifying the threshold system in Costa Rica
- Use of the Commonwealth Contracting Suite in Australia
- Guide to compliance with competition law in joint-bidding, Ireland
- Development of template tender documents in Ireland
Competitive tendering and limit the use of exceptions and single-source procurement
- International competition in infrastructure projects in Australia
- Two-envelope system used in the bids submission phase in the Slovak Republic
- Pilot to help small businesses compete for public procurements in New South Wales
- GovTech Poland – engaging small and medium businesses for public contracts
- Mechanism to enhance SME participation in public procurement in the DPPL
- Investigating reasons for direct awarding in Colombia
- Mexico’s Federal Competition Commission recommendation on subcontracting and modifying agreements
- Impact of the use of e-catalogues in Italy
- A tool for division into lots - Germany
- Contracts Finder – United Kingdom
- Small business set-aside – United States
- SME consultation to improve policy implementation – Netherlands
- Australia’s Commonwealth Procurement Rules
- Mexico’s Law of Acquisition, Leases and Services for the Public Sector
- Time limit for submitting bids in the European Union (EU)
- Training and workshops provided by the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development
- Training and workshops carried out for SMEs in a collaborative way – Ukraine
Other
- Misconduct in the evaluation process and the audit authority’s findings (Slovak Republic)
- Supporting the participation of women-owned businesses in the US, Chile and Korea
- Example of user-centred processes in public procurement in the UK
- Example of user-centred processes in public procurement in Estonia
- US efforts to innovate procurement
- The CONSIP replication model for training in Italy
- National and international practices for using the Open Contracting Data Standard
- Supplier performance information in the United States
- Collaborative reverse factoring – UGAP, France
- The e-marketplace for small value procurement in Italy: The MePA
- Exceptions for specific public procurement procedures in Colombia and Peru
- Go-2-Tender Training Scheme for SMEs - Ireland
- Guidance on market analysis to assist SMEs in Public Procurement - Ireland
- The network of public procurement agents, Finland
- Addressing SMEs’ challenges and constraints through the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises in Canada
Reviews
- Ensuring clarity and reducing procurement risks in IMSS through strong tender documents and model contracts (extract of Public Procurement Review – IMSS, Mexico)
- Achieving better procurement results through sound sourcing methods (extract of Public Procurement Review – ISSSTE, Mexico)
- The way to competition: Measuring direct awards (extract of Public Procurement Review – ISSSTE 2, Mexico)