Procurement Centralisation, Digital Technologies And Competition

By: Albert Sánchez-Graells (How to Crack a Nut)

A new working paper was recently been uploaded, titled ‘Competition Implications of Procurement Digitalisation and the Procurement of Digital Technologies by Central Purchasing Bodies’ on SSRN. The paper is scheduled to be presented at the upcoming conference on “Centralization and new trends” at the University of Copenhagen on 25-26 April 2023. The paper is based on the author’s ongoing research on digital technologies and procurement governance and focuses on the interaction between the strategic goals of procurement centralisation and digitalisation set by the European Commission in its 2017 public procurement strategy.

The paper identifies various ways in which the current trend of procurement digitalisation and the challenges of procuring digital technologies necessitate further procurement centralisation. This is particularly important to facilitate the extraction of insights from big data held by central purchasing bodies (CPBs), build public sector digital capabilities, and enhance procurement’s regulatory gatekeeping potential. The paper then examines the implications of this technology-driven effort for further centralisation of procurement activities for competition as a whole, both in ‘standard’ and digital markets…

CONTINUE READING…