Public Procurement in Lithuania

3. Moving forward: Implementing the centralisation and professionalisation reform

Abstract

This chapter provides the government of Lithuania with recommendations and ways forward through the action plan to reinforce further the centralisation and professionalisation to increase efficiency in public procurement system of Lithuania. The chapter presents an action plan table which describes the context, responsible authority(ies) and the estimated timeframe for each recommendation proposed in Chapter 1 and Chapter 2.

This chapter presents an action plan table to implement the recommendations related to the ongoing centralisation and professionalisation reforms. It describes the context, responsible authority(ies) and the estimated timeframe (short, intermediate, long) for each recommendation proposed in the Chapter 1 and 2.

Table 3.1. Action plan for implementing the recommendations of centralisation and professionalisation

Rec No.	Reform area C / P (*)	Initiative	Context	Recommendation	Responsible authority(ies)	Estimated timeframe (**)
1	C	Implementation of centralisation reform	CPO LT received positive and negative feedbacks from the hospitals that entrusted their procurement procedures to CPO LT in January 2023. For example, the feedback shows that the task related to technical specifications takes time and is not tailored to their needs.	In order to implement the centralisation reform of the health sector, CPO LT could benefit from: • comparing the actual duration of the procurement procedure of CPO LT and contracting authorities. • including in the next survey a more specific question related to the quality and speed of its public procurement procedure for each activity (e.g., definition of technical specifications, tender evaluation, preparation of contract documents); and • Strengthening further its capacity related to health sector procurement and/or recruiting category specialists of the health sector that can verify technical specifications of the health products/services.	CPO LT	Short
2	C	Implementation of centralisation reform	It is indispensable to ensure that 74 regional CPBs function efficiently to comply with the objective of centralisation and the mandatory regulations of centralised public procurement above EUR 15 000.	Lithuania could continue to monitor the performance of these regional CPBs on a regular basis based on the scoreboard and the performance indicators of CPBs	MoEI / PPO	Short
3	C / P	Capability	The number of CPBs increased drastically to 79 as of January 2023.	Lithuania could consider the possibility of reinforcing a national CPB network to coordinate and exchange centralised purchasing practices.	MoEI / CPO LT	Medium
4	C / P	Capability	To maximise the opportunities, CPO LT needs to address potential weaknesses, and internal factors which might not be favourable to the organisation. In particular, the competence related to innovation procurement was identified as the weakest competence not only for the overall average of CPBs but also for CPO LT in the ProcurCompEU survey carried out to 6 CPBs in Lithuania including CPO LT.	CPO LT should further reinforce the capability of its workforce to provide high-quality procurement agent services of strategic procurement such as innovation procurement.	CPO LT	Long
5	C	Strategy of CPO LT	CPO LT can maximise the benefits and impacts of the ongoing centralisation of public procurement to contribute further to improving the overall performance of the public procurement system in Lithuania through their centralised purchasing services.	CPO LT could analyse the current uptake of its services by each client to define its growth strategy.	CPO LT	Short
6	C	Strategy of CPO LT		CPO LT could consider the possibility of increasing the number of the position related to the marketing and customer relations or more broadly assigning marketing related functions to the existing staff.	CPO LT	Long
7	C	Strategy of CPO LT	CPO LT needs to continue to retain and recruit capable officials to prepare for the expansion of the portfolio due to the centralisation reform at the central level and the health sector.	CPO LT could consider the possibility of improving its performance bonus system based on good international practice, if the budget allows for it and the practice can be allowed from the public sector perspective.	CPO LT	Medium
8	C	Strategy of CPO LT	National Progress Plan (2021-2030) sets the target of 20% for innovation procurement by 2030	CPO LT should engage in cooperation with the PPO and Innovation Agency to get prepared to respond to innovation procurement needs from contracting authorities and contribute to promoting innovation procurement, while reinforcing its capability related to innovation procurement.	CPO LT / PPO/ Innovation Agency	Medium
9	C	KPI	67.7% of the indicators (63 out of 93 indicators) adopted in the performance measurement framework of CPBs can be calculated in the digital format. 19.4% (18 out of 93 indicators) can be partially calculated in the digital format. 11 indicators out of these 18 indicators are core indicators, while 7 indicators are aspirational	Lithuania will benefit from collecting the necessary information in the digital format to calculate core indicators, and then aspirational indicators. Lithuania could put the top priority on collecting the information of SRPP (labour, gender consideration etc) by adding to the check box functions to select social dimension such as labour and gender consideration in the e-procurement system	MoEI / PPO	Long
10	C	KPI	Lithuania needs to implement the performance measurement framework of CPBs	The transition period should be considered to test the measurement framework through the pilot as well as to raise awareness of the framework among CPBs.	MoEI / CPO LT	Long
11	C	KPI		Lithuania could consider the possibility of maximising the synergy effect between the CPB performance measurement framework and the lightboard	MoEI / PPO	Long
12	C	KPI	The methodology of CPO LT is unique in that it uses, unlike other benchmarked CPBs, the maximum contract amount that contracting authorities specified and were willing to pay as the benchmarking price to calculate saving from purchase price. This approach has advantages to address the challenge related to the data availability which might be faced in other benchmarking prices. The CPO LT methodology does not calculate administrative saving like other CPBs except the Norwegian DFØ. Developing a quantitative model to calculate saving from centralised purchasing requires intensive research approach.	Lithuania could benefit from collaborating with a knowledge centre (research-oriented universities, think-tanks) to develop a price saving model or study the administrative saving,	MoEI / CPO LT	Long
13	C	KPI		Lithuania could benefit from promoting the discussion of saving calculation methodology to exchange countries’ practices in the international conference	MoEI / CPO LT	Medium
14	P	Certification framework	The certificate will be valid for 5 years after its issuance. This validity is longer than the ones of other countries. The trend of public procurement evolves rapidly, such as the amendments to the public procurement legal framework and more use of strategic procurement.	Lithuania could consider the possibility of improving certification system (including shortening validity term, setting additional certification level, etc), after receiving a feedback on current certification system.	MoEI / PPO	Long
15	P	Certification framework	One year has passed since Lithuania successfully launched its first-ever national certification framework. Initial feedbacks from candidates show that it is more difficult to pass the exam than expected although it is feasible to pass it after proper preparation.	Lithuania could benefit from analysing the quality of the exam by analysing the accuracy rate of each question and module. In addition, Lithuania could benefit from carrying out a survey to receive feedbacks on the current certification framework from procurement professionals who have taken the exam	MoEI / PPO	Short
16	P	Competency matrix	The result of benchmarking exercises of the competences of Lithuania against 30 competences of the ProcurCompEU competency matrix shows that all the 19 procurement specific competences are covered by Lithuania except the three competences: C7 (category specific), C9 (negotiations) and C17 (certification and payment). Only one soft competence (C23 ethics and compliance) is included in the Lithuania competence model.	Lithuania could benefit from examining benchmarking exercise result and updating competences on a regular basis. For example, the competence related to risk management (including integrity aspect) will be worth considering.	PPO	Long
17	P	Capability-building systems	Lithuania provides varieties of capability-building tools such as training, guidelines, and standardised templates.	Lithuania could continue updating the document “Checking the knowledge of procurement specialist” on a regular basis by reflecting all the lecture videos and guidelines.	PPO	Medium
18	P	Capability-building systems	The self-assessment survey result identified C6 (Innovation Procurement) as the weakest competence of the participants with the lowest average point of 1.14, followed by C17 (Certification and payment) and C30 (Risk management and internal control). C5 (Sustainable procurement) and C6 (Innovation Procurement) were selected as the two 1st-priority competences that require more methodological assistance.	Lithuania could benefit from reinforcing the capability-building initiatives for the topics such as innovation procurement, sustainable procurement, and risk management.	PPO	Medium
19	P	Innovation procurement	Lithuania published the three guidelines of innovation procurement, but there is some room for improving their quality further.	Lithuania could improve the quality of the guidelines of innovation procurement by: • enriching the case examples of innovation public procurement implemented inside and outside Lithuania • accompanying the guidelines with the templates of tender documents of innovation procurement procedures such as innovation partnerships and pre-commercial procurement	MoEI / PPO	Long
20	P	Collaboration with knowledge centres	Lithuania promoted collaboration with knowledge centres such as the establishment of the master programme in public procurement.	Lithuania could also benefit from expanding the outreach toward younger generation to raise awareness of public procurement as a future career option.	MoEI / PPO	Long

Note: (*) C: centralisation / P: professionalisation, (**) Short term: recommendations could be implemented within the next 12 months, Medium term: recommendations could be implemented between 1 to 3 years, Long term: recommendations could be implemented in more than 3 years.

Source: Created by the author