This chapter provides an overview of the public procurement landscape in Ireland as of 2023, benchmarks the development of digital public procurement against European and OECD peers, and identifies areas of strength and areas for improvement. While Ireland was an early adopter of e-procurement, the absence of a clear national strategy and a common set of guiding principles contribute to operational silos, limited interoperability between systems, and reduced ability to leverage joined-up data, resulting in a complex environment for public buyers and suppliers. Broader digital government efforts in Ireland offer possibilities for the digital transformation of the public procurement to leverage existing policies and strategies to improve interoperability and improve access to high-quality data.
The Digital Transformation of Public Procurement in Ireland
Abstract
2.1.1. Ireland has developed a centralised approach to public procurement organised around five Central Purchasing Bodies (CPBs)
To reduce duplication and take advantage of economies of scale, Ireland has developed a centralised approach to public procurement. However, responsibility for compliance and ensuring value for money rests with individual contracting authorities (Office of Government Procurement, 2019[28]). Irish public sector procurement is divided into 16 expenditure categories procured by five CPBs, covering the goods and services purchased by over 7 000 contracting authorities. The Office of Government Procurement (OGP) is responsible for eight categories of common goods and services. The four sector CPBs, health, education, local government, and defence, retain sourcing functions to procure the remaining categories. Each CPB establishes central solutions within those categories. Table 2.1 provides details on the breakdown of these 16 categories (note that major capital works are not covered by the centralised sourcing model).
Source: Adapted from OECD (2023[29]), “Procurement for better value – A case study of Ireland: Measuring the impact of centralised purchasing”, OECD Public Governance Policy Papers, No. 37, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/ca1e6c47-en.
The Interim Procurement Reform Board was appointed in 2017 to oversee the delivery of the Government’s procurement priorities, oversee the operations of the OGP, and advise the Minister for Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform (DPENDR) (Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform, 2023[30]). The Board is made up of an independent Chair appointed by the Minister, representatives from the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform, sector CPB partners, and client bodies and several independent members (Interim Procurement Reform Board, 2023[31]).
Ireland’s Procurement Executive brings together senior procurement representatives from the OGP and sector CPBs to enable co-operation and collaboration. The members of the Procurement Executive provide regular reports on procurement activities and results to the Interim Procurement Reform Board. The Procurement Executive is also used to discuss policy changes.
Figure 2.1 provides a high-level overview of the governance structure of the system.
Notes: Figure reflects procurement governance structures as of 2023. LGMA is the Local Government Management Agency and LGOPC is the Local Government Operational Procurement Centre.
Source: Adapted from Interim Procurement Reform Board (2023[31]), Public Procurement Annual Report 2022, https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/e57e5-public-procurement-annual-report-2022/.
The OGP was established in 2013 as a new division within the then Department of Public Expenditure and Reform with two key roles: develop public procurement policy and function as one of five CPBs. In its function as a CPB, the OGP establishes framework agreements, dynamic purchasing systems, and conducts bespoke competitions. Over recent years the OGP has taken into account EU priorities on public procurement which include the wider uptake of innovation, green and social procurement, increasing access to procurement markets, improving transparency, integrity and data, and boosting the digital transformation of procurement.
Along with sourcing common products and services, transposing EU Directives, developing national policy, and supporting training and development, the OGP’s responsibilities include administering eTenders, the national electronic tendering platform. It is used by the OGP, other CPBs, government departments and agencies, local government and health sector organisations, and by the wider public sector, including state owned enterprises and voluntary and community groups that are funded by EU or government bodies. All Irish public sector procurement opportunities advertised in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) are posted on eTenders, as well as other lower-value contracts uploaded to the site by contracting authorities.
As electronic submission is mandatory for all TED procurement competitions, eTenders provides the functionality required to enable the mandatory use of electronic communications between contracting authorities and economic operators. eTenders provides a detailed audit trail of the procurement process from contract notice to contract award notice, as required by the EU Directives. It functions as a central point for publishing notifications and the single eSender to TED. While OGP manage the functioning and administration of eTenders the data contained in the platform is owned by each contracting authority.
The thresholds for the mandatory use of eTenders was raised in March 2023 (see Table 2.2 for the thresholds). The Circular announcing the change indicated that it was intended to assist SMEs in competing for public contracts (Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform, 2023[32]).
Note: The thresholds for the use of eTenders are also the thresholds for the mandatory requirement to advertise opportunities. Amounts are exclusive of VAT.
2.1.2. The diversity of public procurement and digital stakeholders create challenges for digital transformation
Key stakeholders for digital transformation include the contracting authorities and CPBs who undertake public procurement, the economic operators who supply goods, services and works, and public procurement policymakers. Outside those directly involved in public procurement, stakeholders include other institutions and actors involved in digital government, public sector transformation and oversight. This section maps the key stakeholders for the digital transformation of public procurement and briefly describes their perspectives on priorities and challenges.
This diversity of stakeholders is not unique to Ireland but can create challenges in designing and implementing tools and systems that meet the needs of all participants. To overcome these challenges, governments have implemented wide-ranging and intensive consultation mechanisms (see Box 2.1 for an example from Mexico).
In 2018, Mexico’s Ministry of Public Administration (Secretaría de la Función Pública, SFP) established a multi-stakeholder group for the reform of CompraNet, its e-procurement system. This group included representatives from the public sector, business, and civil society and worked towards a shared vision statement for e-procurement in Mexico. The vision statement also aimed at guiding the future development of e-procurement tools in Mexico, including at the subnational level.
The Plural Working Group consisted of six subgroups: information disclosure, interaction with suppliers, competition and capacity building, efficiency and effectiveness, management of complaints and integrity and trust in the tool. Each subgroup was represented by a wide range of stakeholders, including the public sector, civil society, and businesses, and worked on specific key issues and themes.
The establishment of the Plural Working Group was indispensable to set up a shared vision statement for Mexico’s e-procurement system. In this vision, the Plural Working Group recognised the opportunities provided by digital technology to enable a fully transactional system that supports the whole public procurement cycle. The vision statement articulated twelve principles to capture the goals and ambitions of all stakeholders involved in the public procurement process.
Source: OECD (2023[33]), “Professionalising the public procurement workforce: A review of current initiatives and challenges”, OECD Public Governance Policy Papers, No. 26, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/e2eda150-en.
The Irish public sector has over 7 000 contracting authorities, ranging from large organisations with dedicated procurement teams to small buyers with more limited technical skills and capacity. Based on five (+ “other”) factors, respondents to the OECD’s survey of contracting authorities were asked to rank how the efficiency and effectiveness of public procurement could be improved. Half (48%) listed “Simplifying the tendering process” as most important, followed by “Increase the availability of digital/online tools, process and guidance” (26%), “Improve opportunities to access and use data” (13%) and “Improve the user experience and quality of currently available digital/online tools, processes and guidance” (11%). Respondents who chose “Other” specified factors such as education and intuitive tools that are not too complicated for individuals working in organisations with decentralised procurement functions.
Source: OECD survey of Irish contracting authorities, 2023.
The ecosystem of economic operators in Ireland is diverse. It includes large and small companies, primarily local and national suppliers. The OGP’s most recent Public Sector Spend and Tendering Analysis Report, which analyses procurement expenditure across the public sector, found that 92% of analysed spend for 2019 was with firms based in Ireland (Office of Government Procurement, 2022[34]).The ecosystem is supported by networks and industry associations that facilitate engagement between suppliers and the public sector.
SMEs play a key role in the Irish economy and as suppliers to the public sector. In 2020, micro (<10 employees), small (10-49 employees) and medium (50-249 employees) enterprises made up almost the entire private sector, representing 92.6%, 6.1% and 1.1% of enterprises respectively. This accounted for over two-thirds (68.4%) of total private sector employment (Central Statistics Office, 2022[35]). The OGP’s 2021 Public Sector Spend and Tendering Analysis Report found that 52% of analysed spend for 2019 was with SMEs (Office of Government Procurement, 2022[34]).
When asked to rank seven factors that could increase bidding on public contracts, 76% of respondents to the OECD’s survey of economic operators listed increased transparency in their top three. Standardised processes and a more online procurement process were both listed in the top three by half of respondents (52%).
Source: OECD survey of Irish economic operators, 2023.
As noted above, Ireland has five CPBs: the OGP and four sector CPBs. Along with their sourcing function, the sector CPBs also play a role in developing and implementing digital procurement tools aimed at their sectors’ needs.
In line with their role aggregating purchasing and reducing duplication and transaction costs, CPB representatives identified increased efficiency for contracting authorities and easier processes for economic operators as the key priorities for digital procurement in a June 2023 workshop. CPBs would also benefit from improved access to data and more user-friendly tools and processes in their own procurement activities. As the procurement policymaker for Ireland, the OGP in particular could benefit from increased access to data other than that captured centrally by eTenders and eForms to help guide and inform decision making.
Outside of contracting authorities, economic operators and CPBs, other institutions and actors are important stakeholders for the digital transformation of public procurement. This includes those concerned with transformation and digitalisation across the public sector as well as organisations impacted by digital transformation through its impact on the production and availability of data. Rather than being directly concerned with procurement efficiency and outcomes, they are concerned with the alignment of the digital transformation of public procurement with broader transformation strategies, transparency and data availability, and procurement’s role in contributing to the achievement of government priorities. The following provides a short summary of a selection of these stakeholders.
The Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) has the leadership role for the digital agenda across the Irish government (Office of the Government Chief Information Officer, 2022[36]). The OGCIO leads the implementation of Connecting Government 2030, Ireland’s public service digital and ICT strategy, and Ireland’s Data Sharing Governance Framework, which includes the Data Sharing and Governance Act 2019, the Data Governance Board, and the Public Service Data Strategy 2019-2023.
The OGCIO is responsible for ensuring that new digital and ICT-related initiatives are aligned with Government policy and strategies and that they demonstrate good governance structures and practice. This includes a peer review process which applies to digital and ICT initiatives of significant scale, risk, or strategic importance. Peer reviews are carried out by a group of senior personnel, independent of the project team and the OGCIO, with significant experience and knowledge of project management, project governance and/or digital and ICT technical expertise. The peer review group reviews project documentation and project status and meets with the project team at regular milestones. On that basis, it issues an opinion to the OGCIO on the overall health of the project and its continued viability (Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform, 2021[37]). The OGCIO also delivers a range of collaboration tools, platforms, and services for public service bodies. For example, the OGCIO delivers eFOI, a platform that enables Freedom of Information processes and deadlines to be centrally administered and tracked, and eDocs, a document and records management system (Office of the Government Chief Information Officer, 2021[38]).
Along with its role as the home department of both the OGP and the OGCIO, the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform is responsible for public service transformation and innovation and promoting accountable and transparent government (Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform, 2023[39]). This includes developing and overseeing the implementation of the Civil Service Renewal 2030 Strategy and Better Public Services, Ireland’s public service transformation strategy.
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) is Ireland’s national statistical office. Its purpose is to collect, analyse and make available statistics about Ireland’s people, society and economy, including co-ordinating the official statistics of other public authorities (Central Statistics Office, n.d.[40]). The CSO is responsible for Ireland’s National Data Infrastructure (NDI), which was established in 2017 and involves the collection and storage of common identifiers on public sector data whenever they are relevant to public sector bodies. The CSO also promotes the use of common data standards and classifications on administrative data across government organisations.
The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) is responsible for promoting compliance with and enforcing competition and consumer protection law in Ireland. This includes enforcing Irish and European competition law by conducting investigations and taking administrative, civil or criminal enforcement action where there is evidence of breaches of the law, including price fixing, bid-rigging, and market sharing (Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, 2023[41]). The CCPC does not currently leverage public procurement data in its work and there are no existing agreements or mechanisms for the CCPC to access data from the OGP or other public procurement bodies for the purposes of screening for bid rigging; however, the CCPC is building its data analysis capabilities, actively seeking opportunities to increase its access to and use of procurement data and its powers to screen procurement data for potential bid rigging are to be enhanced.
Civil society organisations are also stakeholders in the digital transformation of public procurement. Civil society groups can play an important independent oversight role, which can be supported by the increased transparency and availability of data that digital transformation can facilitate. For example, between 2018 and 2022, Transparency International Ireland produced the National Integrity Index (NII), a series of reports that measured the degree to which organisations in Ireland were prepared to address integrity risks based on the information they publicly disclosed (Transparency International Ireland, n.d.[42]). Amongst other topics, the reports examined organisations’ provision of key information on public procurement. One of the key recommendations was that public bodies provide clear information on procurement procedures and disclose details of procurement contracts awarded (Transparency International Ireland, 2022[43]). In addition, the report on local authorities found that information on expenses, purchase orders, public contracts and annual budgets was often only provided in .pdf format and recommended that it be provided in machine readable formats to make analysis easier (Transparency International Ireland, 2019[44]).
2.1.3. Benchmarking digital public procurement against European and OECD peers
This section situates Ireland’s digital public procurement system in relation to European and OECD peers. Cross-country variations in digital procurement implementation are caused by a wide range of factors, including what is being purchased, the economic structure, and national digital government policies and initiatives. Nevertheless, experiences and variations across countries can be helpful in highlighting opportunities and challenges.
All of Ireland’s European and OECD peers have implemented digital procurement to varying degrees. In 2018, an OECD survey found that all 32 OECD respondents used their central e-procurement system, or that of specific procuring entities, to announce tenders, provide tender documents and notify contract awards. This is also evident in more recent data from the European Union, which shows that all or almost all member states have implemented or are in the process of implementing core e-procurement functions such as e-notice, e-submission and e-invoicing, as well as tools such as the ESPD and DPS (see Table 2.4).
Note: Implemented indicates that at least one service offers this capability but does not indicate the quality or whether it covers the whole country. Data covers the 27 EU member states and Norway.
Source: Adapted from European Commission data.
Looking more closely at the phases of the procurement cycle, the tender phase is more developed across EU member states, including in Ireland. Almost all Members have procurement solutions with extensive capabilities in this phase, focused primarily on formal communication with the market. Procurement solutions are less complete in the pre-tender and post-tender phases. Like Ireland, almost a third of EU countries do not have procurement solutions that allow for the collection of information about needs and requirements or link to information about budget approvals. In the post-tender phase, the picture is mixed: functionalities such as providing information about contract modifications and eInvocing are widely available, but more advanced functionalities such as interoperability with payment systems and capabilities related to the evaluation of contracts are much less common. These broad trends generally reflect where EU Directives make certain functionality mandatory (e.g. the tender phase, e-invoicing). However, there are some countries which stand out as particularly advanced in their implementation of digital procurement across all three phases, such as Estonia, Latvia, and Italy.
Notes: Data covers the 27 EU member states and Norway. Totals do not always add to 28 due to ‘unknown’ responses. Implemented capabilities does not imply that they are widely used.
1. The eTenders platform provides a pre-market consultation functionality in the form of a message board where contracting authorities can publish requirements and economic operators can respond and provide supporting material.
2. The eTenders platform provides a contract module which can store high-level transactional information. The implementation of archiving is under consideration.
3. The eTenders platform does not support this functionality. However, contracting authorities are required to receive electronic invoices compliant with the European e-invoicing standard under e-invoicing Directive 2014/55/EU.
4. The eTenders platform provides a messaging facility where an aggrieved party can submit a message but does not support a formal complaints mechanism.
5. While the eTenders platform supports archiving, it has not been implemented.
Source: Adapted from European Commission with additional information provided by OGP.
Finally, OECD Members are increasingly integrating their e-procurement systems with other government IT systems, such as budgeting interfaces, business and tax registries, social security databases, public financial systems, and enterprise resource planning (ERP). In Belgium, France, Portugal and Slovenia, countries reported connecting their e-procurement system with the budgeting and accounting ERP of the central government. In Austria, Estonia, Greece, Latvia and the Slovak Republic, the e-procurement system was integrated with the business registry, and in Estonia and Latvia with the local tax register as well. Many countries have also started to integrate e-procurement systems with e-signature and e-invoicing systems (OECD, 2019[45]).
Note: Data for the Czechia, Germany, Ireland, and Luxembourg are not available.
Source: Adapted from OECD (2019[45]), “Digital transformation of public procurement”, in Government at a Glance 2019, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/603bd7ed-en.
2.2.1. The digital transformation of public procurement is closely aligned with the Irish government’s ambitious digital agenda
Ongoing efforts on digital government in Ireland offer possibilities for the digital transformation of public procurement to leverage policies and actions intended to increase the capacity of public sector institutions to adopt and use digital tools and data. Starting from the forefront of digital government, strategies such as ‘Harnessing Digital – The Digital Ireland Framework’, ‘Connecting Government 2030 – A Digital and ICT Strategy for Ireland’s Public Service’ and ‘Better Public Services’ set out a strong vision for the further digital transformation of government. While public procurement has not figured prominently, there are opportunities for the digital transformation of public procurement to draw on and align with these strategies.
Ireland’s whole-of-government approach to digital reflects and builds on its strong existing position: Ireland ranked 5th overall in the EU’s 2022 Digital Economy and Society (DESI) Index, which ranks Members according to their level of digitalisation and analyses relative progress over the last five years. The Commission found that Irish public services are highly digitalised and a large proportion of internet users engage actively with e-government services. In 2021, the share of e-government users had increased significantly from 67% to 92%. Ireland performed well in digital public services for both businesses and citizens and scored high in open data. The Commission also highlighted Ireland’s involvement of stakeholders in the co-creation of digital public services, including the development of new structures to create a closer working relationship with industry, academia, and the public (European Commission, 2022[46]).
Harnessing Digital, Ireland’s national digital strategy, was released in 2022. It is set out across four core dimensions, which are in line with the four cardinal points of the EU’s Digital Compass: Digital Transformation of Business; Digital Infrastructure; Skills; and Digitalisation of Public Services. Under the Digitalisation of Public Services dimension, the strategy commits to moving towards a more user-centric service model, including leveraging and building on the significant increase in digital service provision and uptake during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also acknowledges the role of strong data governance and the importance of harnessing publicly held data to increase transparency and improve public services (Department of Taoiseach, 2022[47]).
Ireland’s public service digital and ICT strategy, Connecting Government 2030, was published in 2022. It aims to change how people, businesses, and policymakers interact, ensuring interoperability across levels government and across public services (Office of the Government Chief Information Officer, 2022[48]). The strategy identifies six priority action areas with direct implications for the digital transformation of public procurement:
A human-driven digital experience: including aspects related to service design and promotion of simplified access to government digital services and processes by citizens and businesses.
Harnessing data effectively: including actions for improved data sharing and use in the Irish public sector such as the data strategy, data interoperability initiative, and the data governance board.
Government as a platform: development of an ecosystem of building blocks such as digital standards, common components and resources that enable a systemic and coherent digital transformation across Ireland’s public sector. The development of common components and use of open-source solutions that enable scalable digital tools across the public sector are emphasised.
Evolving through innovation: including the use of emerging technologies and out-of-the-box solutions for common and old problems.
Strengthening digital skills: including an update of the competence model led by the Public Service with the needed digital skills to enable government digital transformation as well as the development of ICT professionalisation and talent development programmes.
Focusing on governance and leadership: including broader governance structures within the public sector to enable the digital transformation of the government as well as consultations with businesses and individuals regarding priorities for digital government services.
Ireland is paying particular attention to public sector data. This includes a dedicated Public Service Data Strategy that sets the vision and actions for advancing improved data governance in the public sector (Office of the Government Chief Information Officer, 2019[49]). The Data Strategy aims to support the Irish public sector in the implementation of the EU Data Governance Act (European Commission, 2023[13]) for trustworthy governance, sharing and re-use of data within the public sector as well as with private entities. Several actions are being carried out with a direct impact on the digital transformation of public procurement:
National data infrastructure: OGCIO is currently implementing an interoperability platform based on APIs to enable public sector institutions to co-operate, share and re-use data and services in an effective and consistent way.
Trusted identifiers: Ireland is working toward increase the consistency and coherence of natural and legal persons’ identifiers, with the purpose of effectively enable the once-only principle and operationalise efforts for data sharing and use in the public sector. This includes the development of the Unique Business Identifier (UBI) by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
Governance and capabilities: the OGCIO leads Ireland’s Data Governance Board, entity that oversees data management and sharing agreements across the Irish public sector. Besides, public sector institutions will be requested to define their institutional data strategies and define dedicated roles to oversee data governance at sector level.
Digital collection and standards: development of dedicated data standards to foster digital data production and collection across the Irish public sector.
Better Public Services, Ireland’s public service transformation strategy provides the direction for strategic reform in the Irish Public Service. The strategy is focused on six outcomes: greater use of digital, increased customer satisfaction, increased public trust, greater employee engagement, improved quality of public services, and better government effectiveness. It aims to achieve these objectives through measures based around three core pillars:
Digital and innovation at scale: harnessing the potential of digitisation and applying innovation, putting the customer at the centre of the design of service delivery, and providing a dynamic and agile workplace.
Workforce and organisation of the future: ensuring a public service that is more diverse, agile and inclusive and reflects Irish society, ensuring that staff are equipped for the future, and establishing itself as an employer of choice.
Evidence-informed policy and services designed for and with the public: delivering effective human-centred policies and services designed with evidence and insights from the public and from data and research and enabling accessible and shared public service data (Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform, 2023[50]).
These government digital transformation efforts offer an opportunity to OGP and other CPBs to leverage strategies and initiatives for the digitalisation of public procurement. For example, given the digital transformation of public procurement’s focus on data and the user experience, it could be closely aligned with Better Public Services through the pillar on digital and innovation and the pillar on evidence-informed policy and services. Alignment with these broader strategies can promote overall policy coherence and allow the public procurement system to leverage existing public sector knowledge and resources. This could include, for example, the recently published Action Plan for Designing Better Public Services, which includes commitments to establishing central design support and creating funding mechanisms for design related initiatives (Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform, 2023[51]).
However, there is limited evidence that current efforts for the digitalisation of public procurement are anchored in the government’s vision and action on digital government. Efforts to expand the use and functionality of eTenders, for example, are not clearly articulated within the government strategy on digital government. In addition, the fragmentation in terms of digital solutions implemented by CPBs across different phases of the procurement lifecycle and the limited interoperability and coherence call for greater alignment and leveraging of the principles, standards and solutions implemented or under development at the central level. Looking ahead, OGP and other CPBs could explore central efforts on public sector data sharing, in particular regarding the new interoperability platform and standards for data collection and sharing. They could form the basis for an approach to connecting different CPBs’ solutions and the procurement lifecycle phases that could lead to an interoperable public procurement function within the Irish public sector.
2.2.2. Ireland has been successful in digitalising the tendering phase of the procurement lifecycle
Ireland has been in successful in establishing the mature use of e-procurement for the tendering phase of the public procurement lifecycle, primarily through the implementation of eTenders.
The eTenders system is primarily used for communication with the market during the tender process. It supports the procurement procedures, instruments and techniques set out in the EU Directives and national legislation. It also supports the publication of a range of procurement documents and notices including contract notices, contract award notices, requests for tenders, prior information notices, request for information, and voluntary ex ante transparency notices. The system provides email alerts of procurement opportunities to registered suppliers in their respective areas of business. This single platform for publishing notifications may also be a strength of the Irish procurement system. For example, in the OECD’s 2022 survey of economic operators, when asked how challenging it is to find tender opportunities, only 16% of respondents rated it a 4 or 5 on a scale from 1 (very easy) to 5 (very challenging).
Ireland has continued to invest in eTenders, with a change of the IT platform going live in May 2023. The OGP awarded a contract for the provision of the eTenders platform to a new supplier for a period of up to 10 years in 2022. The new solution remains focused on the publication to award phase of the procurement lifecycle but provides additional functionality to make it easier for contracting authorities to access centralised arrangements and is expected to improve future access to data for the OGP and other stakeholders on a going forward basis.
When transitioning to the new eTenders platform, the OGP ensured that historical data covering the previous 10 years would remain available by maintaining access to the previous (‘legacy’) eTenders platform on an interim basis until May 2024. This continued access to the legacy platform will allow contracting authorities time to make the necessary provisions and act to retrieve and retain their procurement competition data off the platform beyond that date. However, stakeholders noted that this will result in the loss of a single point of access to the consolidated historical data, which will only be available through individual contracting authorities rather than on the eTenders platform. Given the large number of contracting authorities, this will represent a loss of transparency unless the consolidated historical data can be made publicly available in future.
There remain areas to strengthen the eTenders user experience and continue to expand functionality in the tendering phase to provide a strong foundation for digital transformation. Stakeholders raised concerns in areas such as e-evaluation, notifications and overall usability and support. In some cases, challenges may reflect the ongoing transition to the new IT platform (e.g. the migration of existing central arrangements) and the recent introduction of eForms.
In addition to eTenders, other CPBs use tools adapted to their specific sectors to allow contracting authorities to draw on purchasing arrangements. The Local Government Operational Procurement Centre (LGOPC) operates an e-procurement platform, supplygov.ie, customised for the needs of the Local Government sector-led categories, which are available for use by all public sector bodies. The framework agreements and dynamic purchasing systems available on supplygov.ie have been established and are contained on eTenders, but contracting authorities are able to conduct mini-competitions under centralised arrangements directly through the LGOPC platform. Supplygov.ie also provides a mechanism for contracting authorities to request quotes from suppliers for purchases below the thresholds set out in Table 2.2. By allowing for rapid purchases and reflecting the needs and work environment of the sector in terms of documentation and process, supplygov.ie increases the efficiency and effectiveness of procurement for Local Government-led categories. Notably, supplygov.ie has been developed in-house by the LGOPC, providing flexibility in adapting and modifying the platform to meet the needs of its users. Health Business Services, the health sector CPB, established an e-catalogue system as part of its COVID-19 pandemic response. The use of e-catalogues will be facilitated by the new financial management system currently being implemented across the health sector.
2.3.1. Public procurement governance structures could better address and support digital transformation
There is a lack of co-ordination and collaboration between key stakeholders on the digital transformation of public procurement. During workshops held in June 2023, representatives from CPBs identified governance and co-ordination challenges, such as siloed decision making, as the biggest barrier to successful digital transformation. Under existing governance mechanisms, the role of the OGP and other organisations in digital transformation are not always clearly defined. For example, while the eTenders system is clearly the responsibility of the OGP, responsibility for the establishment of mandatory or voluntary standards that would promote interoperability and data sharing is not.
Public procurement policymaking in Ireland is based largely on consensus building and voluntary compliance rather than the imposition of mandatory requirements. Officials noted that this is the result of both the varying capabilities and needs of contracting authorities and sectors, as well as a broader approach to the transposition of European directives that emphasises policy over legal mandates. For example, while it is government policy that public bodies should make use of central arrangements where possible, there is no requirement that they be used (Office of Government Procurement, 2019[28]). Exceptions to this voluntary approach are driven largely by European directives and regulations, such as the requirement to accept electronic invoices or the introduction of eForms.
This approach increases the importance of governance structures and mechanisms that allow key stakeholders such as CPBs to co-ordinate their activities. This is particularly true for digital transformation, where many of the benefits are dependent on integration across the procurement cycle and between contracting authorities and CPBs. For example, the French Ministry of Economy and Finance made governance, including the creation of a project committee to direct overall implementation, a key axis of its Plan for the Digital Transformation of Public Procurement (see Box 2.2).
Governance is one of five axes of France’s Plan for the Digital Transformation of Public Procurement. The Plan recognises that digital transformation requires supporting the various players through structured and clear governance. The governance structure aims at the implementation or supervision of the actions under the Plan, monitoring progress, raising awareness, and co-ordination of the various public and private sector actors.
The Plan is led by a project director appointed by the Prime Minister and attached to the French Ministry of Economy and Finance. Operational guidance is provided by a project committee made up of representatives from central government and procurement bodies, while strategic guidance is provided by a committee whose members include the Interministerial Digital Directorate (La direction interministérielle du numérique) and the General Directorate of Public Finances (La direction générale des Finances publiques).
While there are no governance bodies or mechanisms dedicated to co-ordinating the development of digital public procurement, there are a number of co-ordinating bodies focused on either procurement or digital. Existing procurement governance bodies include the Interim Procurement Reform Board and the Procurement Executive, whose composition and roles are described above. In addition, there are a number of digital governance mechanisms:
The Data Governance Board, chaired by the Government Chief Information Officer and made up of public servants and external representation, advises the government on the rules, procedures and standards for base registries1 and accessing of personal data and on compliance with those rules, procedures, and standards. It also reviews data sharing agreements and makes recommendations if required (Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, 2021[54]).
The NDI Champions Group, chaired by the CSO with representatives from departments and agencies with high-value data, monitors and promotes coverage of the unique identifiers across public sector data holdings (Central Statistics Office, n.d.[55]).
The peer review process for major digital and ICT initiatives, described above.
Ireland could make greater use of existing governance bodies and consider creating a digital focused public procurement forum or body. This could include, for example, the creation of a digital transformation working or steering group chaired by OGP and including representatives from CPBs, the OGCIO and other key stakeholders and reporting regularly to the Procurement Executive and Interim Procurement Reform Board to ensure high-level buy-in and alignment with broader procurement priorities.
2.3.2. There is no clearly articulated vision and roadmap to achieve digital transformation
Strategy documents and plans across the procurement landscape acknowledge the importance of digitalisation but are limited in their articulation of a clear whole-of-government plan to advance the digital transformation of public procurement. This limits organisations’ ability to make strategic decisions about the deployment of new tools and systems that could work together in a co-ordinated way.
For example, while advancing digitalisation was one of five objectives of the OGP’s 2021-2023 Statement of Strategy, there was not a detailed roadmap or timeline for planned actions or a detailed explanation of why digitalisation is important to achieving the OGP’s mission and vision (Office of Government Procurement, 2021[56]). The Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform’s 2023-2025 Statement of Statement, which replaces the OGP’s Statement of Strategy, includes actions to lead the implementation of Connecting Government 2030 and to deliver transparent and sustainable public procurement, suggesting opportunities to link the two (Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform, 2023[57]). Digitalisation appears as an area of focus in other strategies and plans across the procurement system. The HSE’s 2021-2024 Corporate Plan, which sets out key actions to improve the health service and people’s health and well-being, includes the implementation of a single integrated financial management and procurement system across the Irish health service (Health Service Executive, 2021[58]). The Interim Procurement Reform Board’s 2021 and 2022 annual reports have also identified change management for the transformation of public procurement, including enhancing efficiency through digitalisation, as a priority and signalled the need to use digital systems to leverage central solutions and enable greater competition (Interim Procurement Reform Board, 2022[59]) (Interim Procurement Reform Board, 2023[31]). While these strategies and plans acknowledge the importance of digital procurement, they do not present a national, cross-sectoral approach.
This absence of a clear articulation of the aims and benefits of digital transformation on the national level may be contributing to silos of people, data and processes across the broad range of procurement stakeholders. A national strategy for the digital transformation of public procurement linking concrete actions and initiatives across organisations to broader goals could help to establish the overarching vision and structure to advance digital transformation across sectors.
2.3.3. There are opportunities to expand digitalisation in the pre-tender and post-tender phases of the procurement lifecycle
Digitalisation efforts have focused on the tender phase, while the pre- and post-tender phases of the procurement lifecycle have been relatively neglected. One result is a fragmented view of public procurement in Ireland, making it challenging for policymakers to build an accurate picture of the full procurement landscape. An increased focus on the full procurement lifecycle, from needs assessment through contract management, could equip the public sector with improved tools and result in more efficient processes. As noted above and illustrated in Figure 2.5, the eTenders platform is focused primarily on the tender phase. In the pre- and post-tender phases, contracting authorities and CPBs rely on heterogenous tools and manual processes.
Source: Authors’ elaboration.
The pre-tender phase is challenging for Irish contracting authorities, suggesting that it may be a fruitful area to focus digitalisation efforts. Respondents to the OECD’s survey of contracting authorities reported that they had the most challenges in the pre-tender phase (56%), followed by the tender phase (23%) and post-tender phase (21%).
Source: OECD survey of Irish contracting authorities, 2023.
Tools exist for procurement planning but are generally not fully digitalised. For example, the National Public Procurement Policy Framework requires that non-commercial State bodies complete a corporate procurement plan and OGP guidance advises contracting authorities to publish details of their future procurement plans (Office of Government Procurement, 2019[28]; Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform, 2023[32]). The plans support procurement planning, early identification of procurement priorities and the alignment of procurement needs with the organisation’s broader strategic objectives and help CPBs identify where existing frameworks can be enhanced and new ones are needed. The OGP’s guidance on developing corporate procurement plans identifies data points such as CPV codes, estimated cost, procurement method, timeline, contract duration, and whether the procurement will include strategic considerations (Office of Government Procurement, 2020[60]).
However, corporate procurement plans are not collected centrally or produced in a standard format that would allow data from different organisations to be aggregated, and there is no legal or policy mandate to do so. In the OECD’s 2023 survey of contracting authorities, one respondent suggested that more transparency around corporate procurement plans and the sharing of information and data could improve strategic procurement decision making.
In the education sector, the Multi-Annual Procurement Plan (MAPP) is used as a standardised planning tool. MAPPs are an excel-based tool that is completed by contracting authorities with their procurement plans over three years. Completed MAPPs are submitted to the Education Procurement Service (EPS), the education sector CPB. The data is aggregated and analysed to support the planning of future central arrangements. EPS carries out analysis of the data, mapping it across the 16 categories of spend of the centralised procurement model and produces reports for the three-year forecast of education sector requirements (Education Procurement Service, n.d.[61]). However, the MAPP is excel-based and can be a time-consuming process for contracting authorities.
Support for the preparation of calls for tender such as standardised tendering documentation, offers, general contract terms/conditions, evaluation forms and administrative documents exist but are not integrated with tendering platforms or generally seen as user friendly. For example, the Capital Works Management Framework (CWMF) is a suite of best practice guidance, standard contracts and generic template documents covering all aspects of the delivery process of a public works project from inception to final project delivery and review. It is highly structured and clearly lays out the appropriate form of contract, form of tender, invitation to tender and other model forms for different situations, as well as providing project management support. Although work is underway to revisit processes and digitalise the CWMF, it currently reproduces existing paper-based processes and is delivered through a series of PDFs and word documents. A relatively recent tool that takes greater advantage of digitalisation opportunities in the pre-tender phase is the Green Public Procurement (GPP) Criteria Search (https://gppcriteria.gov.ie/), launched in 2022 (see Box 2.3 for details).
Green public procurement (GPP), the public purchasing of products and services which are less environmentally damaging when taking into account their whole life cycle, is increasingly used by countries to achieve environmental policy objectives. By using their purchasing power to choose goods, services and works with a reduced environmental impact, governments can make an important contribution towards sustainability goals.
Ireland’s Environmental Protection Agency published updated GPP Criteria for ten sectors along with Green Public Procurement Guidance for the Public Sector in 2021. The criteria can be copied by contracting authorities directly into tender documents (minor adjustment may be necessary in some circumstances). Technical specifications, selection criteria, award criteria, and contract performance clauses are included, as appropriate for a particular category. Methods of verification are provided for each criterion.
In 2022, OGP, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications developed the Green Public Procurement Criteria Tool, which allows users to find, select and download the GPP criteria relevant to their specific procurement. Users can search criteria by keyword or by sector (e.g. food and catering services, textile products and services). The online search tool facilitates the use of GPP Criteria to advance sustainability goals in a user-friendly and efficient way.
Following contract award, there are few widely available or used digital tools or processes. Contracting authorities indicated that they generally use manual processes and focus their contract management activities on their most important contracts. Some expressed interest in tools that would allow for greater performance management (e.g. measuring and tracking KPIs) and enable automated communication with suppliers. An OGP information note on procurement planning refers to the need under freedom of information legislation for contracting authorities to maintain a contract register, but their form and implementation is organisation-specific. In terms of transparency, an OGP information note encourages contracting authorities to publish details on their websites of what they procure as well as information on existing contracts (Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform, 2023[32]).
Ireland has taken a relatively light touch in implementing e-invoicing. Contracting authorities are required to receive and process electronic invoices, but only for invoices that relate to public procurement contracts above EU threshold values. There is no obligation on economic operators to submit eInvoices. This approach aims at avoiding increasing costs or burden on enterprises, including SMEs, and allowing contracting authorities to gradually gain maturity in processing eInvoices (European Commission, n.d.[64]). However, it differs from the majority of Members, 70% of which have made or plan to make the submission of electronic invoices by economic operators mandatory (European Commission, n.d.[65]). As a result of this approach, some contracting authorities have advanced standards-based, automated and integrated systems while others process invoices in both manual and semi-automated ways (European Commission, n.d.[64]).
In interviews with procurement professionals from CPBs, contracting authorities and business groups, views on the readiness of economic operators for a mandatory approach to e-invoicing were mixed. Some indicated that there was a high degree of capability, driven in part by the digitalisation of government services and support during the COVID-19 pandemic. Others, however, still expressed concern that mandatory e-invoicing would impose a burden on economic operators. In the 2023 survey of economic operators carried out by the OECD, 88% of respondents reported using e-invoicing, 75% with all of clients and 13% with only some (private sector) clients.
Financial Management Shared Services systems are expected to be the main e-invoicing processing points across the public sector as they are rolled out over the coming years. Public bodies across different sectors are being on-boarded to standardised financial shared services systems which include invoice processing functionality over the next few years (European Commission, n.d.[64]). All public service financial shared services systems have established a solution to enable them to receive and process European standard compliant eInvoices via the PEPPOL eDelivery network. This rollout may provide an opportunity to drive the uptake of e-invoicing, as many contracting authorities will not need to invest in their own e-invoicing solutions.
Hansel, Finland’s central procurement agency, worked to build a public open data portal so that everyone could analyse government spending. The OpenProcurement.fi service, launched in 2017, provides public access to information on state and other public organisations' procurement.
Users can search the purchases of more than 70 government buyers and around 20 000 suppliers each year from 2016 to the present. They can see details such as the procurement category, date and price of every invoice. Bulk downloads are available in various formats through Finland’s open data directory. The service shows the parties from which products and services have been procured as well as when these purchased were made.
Data from OpenProcurement.fi has led to high-profile investigations in Finnish media. The project’s goal was to increase transparency, but it has also highlighted potential savings: for example, one ministry’s stationery costs were 1 000 times more than another. Economic operators also use the service for market research.
The portal allows procurement data to be analysed from three perspectives:
Buyers: Buyers are state and other organisations that purchase goods and services.
Suppliers: When the supplier is a private individual, the supplier is marked as "supplier information not public" (this process is made easier by Finland’s central supplier registry). Some state and other organisations’ purchases are classified as confidential by law and are not included in the service.
Procurement categories: Purchases can be also inspected by procurement category. From there, users can also inspect the product and service groups that the data has been divided into based on the posting of invoices.
Because Finland uses a mandatory centralised e-invoicing system, the accuracy of the data is very high. Central government data is collected from the state invoice system and data for other organisations is based on invoice data submitted to Hansel. Thanks to the availability of the data and a strong political commitment, the initial project was launched in only nine months.
Source: (Neumann, 2023[66]; Hansel, n.d.[67]); and information provided by Hansel.
2.3.4. There is limited interoperability across the procurement lifecycle
Procurement solutions and tools are generally not integrated and there appear to be few existing initiatives or plans to increase interoperability. Across the procurement lifecycle, organisations in Ireland are using a wide variety of solutions and tools of varying sophistication. Many contracting authorities use internal systems for procurement but lose the ability to track procurements and reported increased data errors when data is transferred to or from eTenders. Some contracting authorities have procure-to-pay systems, but there is no exchange of data between these systems and eTenders.
This includes limited integration or automated data transfer between the systems of different CPBs. During workshops held in June 2023, representatives from CPBs identified incompatible systems and formats as the biggest barrier to the greater use of data in procurement. A new financial management system is being implemented across the health sector but there was limited consideration to integrating the new system with eTenders in either the procurement and development of the new health sector financial management system or the development of the new eTenders platform. Similarly, there is currently no integration between eTenders and supplygov.ie.
There is limited integration between e-procurement systems and other digital government systems and platforms. This is not unique to procurement and may reflect the digital landscape across the public sector in Ireland more generally. Officials indicated that the implementation of integration and tools such as open APIs is relatively immature even between central government departments. The new eTenders platform has functionality to support interoperability, including data exchange through API with financial management systems, customer relationship management solutions building information modelling tools, and the websites of the Irish Revenue Commissioners (the agency responsible for taxation) and Eircode (Ireland’s unique geographic identifier) as well as the functionality to import and export data in line with the Open Contracting Data Standard2. Given the recent launch of the new platform, the use of this new functionality has not been extensively explored, in part because there are seen to be few national databases to connect with.
There are opportunities for increased alignment of the infrastructures and applications linking different systems, but capitalising on these opportunities would require overcoming the challenges posed by legacy systems and the differing levels of maturity between stakeholders. Clear governance to define integration policy and standards would be critical. This may be particularly challenging when interfacing with other government systems and platforms outside of procurement, but there are clear benefits.
2.3.5. Advances in the digitalisation of public procurement in Ireland have not consistently addressed access to and sharing of high-quality and timely procurement data
Advances in the digitalisation of public procurement in Ireland have not consistently addressed access to and sharing of high-quality and timely procurement data, reflecting the existing landscape of heterogeneous digital solutions and approaches. Because of the diverse digital tools used across different phases of the procurement lifecycle, data governance is treated and understood in different ways by CPBs. Additionally, each CPB has to respond to the needs of different users and business needs, resulting in solutions that do not enable a consistent and unified approach to procurement data governance.
Notably, central efforts are led by the OGP through the implementation of eTenders for the tender phase. The role of the OGP as CPB and policy lead for public procurement in Ireland has facilitated the adoption and uptake of eTenders. However, the historical approach to making most data fields optional on eTenders leads to issues of consistency, completeness, and accuracy of data – eventually as diverse as the number of stakeholders involved in tendering processes. Organisations have had differing understandings of the relevance of some data fields which has been reflected in the fact that these are not completed by all contracting authorities. This has affected the government’s capacity to leverage eTenders data in a consistent way. The implementation of eForms and their adaptation by OGP to capture key data should better enable reporting and improve data quality. While these efforts should improve data availability, the recent increase in the thresholds for the mandatory use of eTenders will have the opposite effect.
Currently no dedicated co-ordination mechanisms to improve the quality and timeliness of procurement data in Ireland. The absence of an adequate governance model for procurement data constrains the capacity of all stakeholders to leverage procurement data and to break down organisational silos for a joined-up and whole-of-government approach to public procurement. In line with best practices on data governance in the public sector (OECD, 2019[68]), Ireland could consider establishing such roles, leveraging the policymaking function of the OGP to define a governance model that effectively co-ordinates CPBs and other key stakeholders for a unified approach.
Ireland is using the introduction of eForms to improve the quality of procurement data by improving standardisation and increasing the scope of information collected (Office of Government Procurement, 2023[69]). Ireland’s implementation of eForms includes an increase in mandatory fields, including, for example, information on strategic procurement and the inclusion of Eircodes (the unique geographic indicator used across the Irish government). Implementation was structured to allow the capture of priority data based on an assessment of identified data gaps and wider policy agendas, determined in close collaboration with stakeholders such as the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. Of the voluntary eForms to be made available in 2024, Ireland is proposing to adopt two below threshold eForms (contract notice and contract award notice). When implemented, the below threshold eForms will be mandatory for publishing on eTenders and will include the same data fields on strategic procurement being implemented on the equivalent above threshold eForms (Office of Government Procurement, 2023[70]). This improvement in data quality and scope should provide the basis for more evidence-informed analysis and policymaking, as well as support Ireland’s potential participation in the Public Procurement Data Space.
The eCertis system is rarely used in Ireland; for example, less than a quarter of respondents to the OECD’s 2023 survey of economic operators reported having used it. This may reflect the fact that Ireland’s cross-border procurement primarily takes place with the United Kingdom, the absence of appropriate national databases and registers, as well as a lack of promotion of eCertis to contracting authorities and economic operators. However, eCertis’ role in enhancing the functionality and effectiveness of ESPD implementation by supporting integration with national databases (European Commission, n.d.[71]) and the importance placed by economic operators on the once-only-principle in the OECD’s 2023 survey suggest it is worthy of further attention. OGP officials indicated that the organisation has been primarily focused on eForms implementation in order to meet the October 2023 deadline, but that resourcing has been recently reinstated to the management and promotion of eCertis.
2.3.6. Digital transformation could make public procurement more responsive to the needs and expectations of users
Digital transformation is an opportunity to drive broader procurement priorities (e.g. increasing the take-up of framework agreements and improving SME access, adoption of GPP criteria). Improved digital tools and processes could make it easier for users, from contracting authorities to economic operators, to access collaborative arrangements and participate in public tendering.
There is interest in using innovative tools and technologies to rethink existing processes, but it will be important to establish the required building blocks. Many emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, rely heavily on data to provide meaningful insights and outcomes. Access to extensive and quality data is crucial, and a robust investment in data collection, storage, and management systems must ensure the availability of accurate, reliable, and up-to-date data.
Ensuring that digital tools can seamlessly integrate with existing procurement platforms and other relevant systems, not necessarily focused on the tendering process itself, is crucial for a streamlined and coherent procurement process. Public servants responsible for managing procurement processes face the challenge of dealing with complex regulations and procedures, and user-centric digital tools can empower them with the knowledge and skills to navigate these intricacies more effectively. Enhancing the user experience is vital to addressing capacity challenges and staff turnover; by establishing a one-stop-shop approach, data-driven and process automated for procurement tasks, public servants could more easily access the tools, guidelines, and resources not covered by eTenders.
A strong user experience is also critical to attracting potential suppliers. For example, Ireland’s application of the once-only principle in procurement could be strengthened. Implementing the once-only principle allows suppliers to submit required information only once and share it across various procurement processes, reducing repetitive data entry and saving time. As a result, economic operators or suppliers would experience a streamlined interaction with the procurement system, increasing their willingness to participate in public tenders and contracts.
Currently, suppliers provide a range of information related to their identity, location, scale and area of business to register on eTenders. However, suppliers reported having to provide similar information multiple times to different contracting authorities, as well as other government departments and agencies. The system provides email alerts of procurement opportunities to registered suppliers in their respective areas of business. In the 2023 survey of economic operators carried out by the OECD, a number of respondents indicated that the need to repeatedly upload or provide the same information was one of the main barriers or challenges to participating in public tenders. In the same survey, 77% of respondents reported having used the ESPD. On a scale of 1 (very bad) to 5 (very good), respondents who had used the ESPD gave the experience a rating of only 2.9. Improving the user experience of the ESPD to reduce the need to provide information multiple times could be an opportunity to make the tendering process more efficient for economic operators.
Source: Authors’ elaboration.
← 1. A base registry is a trusted and authoritative source of information, which can be digitally reused by others, where one organisation is responsible and accountable for the collection, use, updating and preservation of information. Base registries are reliable sources of basic information on data items such as people, companies, vehicles, licences, buildings, locations and roads (European Commission, 2017[72]).
← 2. The Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) is a non-proprietary open data standard for public procurement, implemented by over 30 governments. It describes how to publish data and documents about contracting processes for goods, works and services (Open Contracting Partnership, n.d.[73]).