The Impact of Professionalization in Public Procurement – evidence from a case study

Abstract

The importance of public procurement for achieving value for money in public purchases – thus obtaining important savings in the use of taxpayers’ money and effectiveness in meeting citizen’s demand for public goods of a given quality – is widely recognised, as made clear by the Directive 2014/24 of the European Union and the international legal framework for public procurement at large. But how can these goals be met? Professionalization is a necessary condition and thus represents a key part of the final answer. But what kind of professionalization is really needed? In what environment? With which results? These questions are rarely answered with real life examples. Taking advantage of a questionnaire-based cohort of individuals that have gone through a process of professionalization in an international environment, this paper expands on its challenges and on the importance of professionalization of the persons working in public procurement-related activities as key to an efficient use of public money.