Establish Source of Quantitative Data on Public Procurement (NO0064)

Summary of the commitment

Background The Norwegian Agency for Public and Financial Management (DFØ) has the ambition to be recognised as the leading source of quantitative data on public procurement. In its review of Norway’s public procurement system (MAPS), the OECD (2018) pointed out that one area for improvement was to invest in data collection and the development of a framework for analysing and monitoring status and performance. The Office of the Auditor General’s review of green procurement in 2022 also sheds light on the issue: A lack of data has made it challenging to describe the scope, costs and effects of green procurement. A fundamental challenge is that the available information does not meet the need. This is due both to inadequate access to existing information sources and to the fact that the sources do not contain the necessary information about the procurements that are carried out. DFØ was tasked in the letter of allocation for 2021 with facilitating the production of better procurement data from central government entities. In addition, they were tasked with increasing the production and use of data for efficient resource utilisation. This work was continued in 2022, and forms the basis for DFØ’s ambition to make data available to promote openness in public procurement. This will be done by continuously expanding data collection in order to produce information about public procurement and consumption, together with the risks and consequences that procurement may have for the economy and sustainability. Examples of data DFØ wants to make available: • Data on public announcements to obtain a better knowledge base about procurements made on Doffin. This includes raw data from the Doffin.no solution, together with aggregated statistics. • Statistics from the use of eBevis. eBevis is a service for electronic collection of documentary evidence from various public registers. • Statistics from accounting data and supplier information for public agencies. • Data and statistics on climate and environmentally friendly public procurement. • Data and statistics on the results of the procurement survey. DFØ’s ambition is to make data available in the form of statistics and finished analyses on dfo.no and anskaffelser.no, as well as open data on data.norge.no and data.dfo.no.

Description of the problem

1. What problems will the commitment solve? The need for better data on public procurement has previously been mentioned by, among others, the OECD and the Office of the Auditor General, as well as in DFØ’s letter of allocation. Data on public procurement can meet the needs of several target groups for access and knowledge, for example through insight into public agencies’ procurement practices and their effects. There is a need for knowledge about the management of public procurement. This knowledge is needed both as a basis for overarching policy formulation and to follow up on overarching political goals. In addition, public agencies need data to be able to manage their procurement effectively and efficiently. To obtain a comprehensive picture of the agencies’ procurement costs, systematic procurement analyses must be prepared that show who buys what and from which suppliers (spend analysis). At the same time, open administration is important for democracy because it helps to maintain a high level of public confidence that public funds are used efficiently. Statistics and data on completed procurements will give the public better knowledge of the scope, type and nature of procurements and who (at a general level) is awarded public contracts. This is information that can contribute to improved access to and control of public expenditure. The initiative will provide the target groups with better insight through data and statistics, especially in the areas of announcements on Doffin, accounting data and supplier information, climate and environmentally friendly procurements, and public agencies’ procurement work.

2 What is the cause of the problem? The problem is caused by: • Access to data: often proprietary or entity-specific data is difficult to export or transfer due to legal obstacles or because it is technically labour-intensive. • Technical data management solutions in DFØ: data management, both a technical data platform and expertise for operation and development, requires capacity and resources. The goal is to establish stable and secure framework conditions for the management of procurement-relevant data that enables dissemination and accessibility.

Description of the commitment

1. What has been done so far to solve the problem? • DFØ has established ANS datasjø as a data platform for data management. • DFØ has established the domain data.dfo.no where open data will be published. • DFØ has carried out legal investigations into access to accounting and invoice data in dialogue with NFD.

2. What kind of solution is proposed? • DFØ is working on gaining access to data, establishing data flow to the data platform, conducting analyses and publishing data and statistics openly.

3. What results will be achieved by implementing the commitment? • Improved data-based knowledge and openness about public procurement based on DFØ’s quantitative data on public procurement. • Clarification of DFØ’s role as a premise provider and primary source of quantitative data on public procurement.

Analysis of the commitment

• How will the commitment promote openness? DFØ’s ambition is to promote openness in public procurement by sharing raw data, analyses and statistics. The public can thus to a greater extent control and scrutinise data from procurement processes, but also from actual purchases and consumption. In addition, suppliers can use this data to build solutions and services that the general public and the public sector can use to gain better insight.

• How will the commitment contribute to greater predictability? Sharing data and statistics lays the foundation for the public and others to engage with public agencies to a greater extent. Predictability is made possible through detailed information about procurements, e.g. who the contracting authority is, what they procure, who wins the contract, the volume of the contract, etc.

• How will the commitment improve the opportunity for citizens to participate by publicising, implementing and monitoring the solutions? DFØ seeks to provide the general public with greater insight and knowledge about public procurement at a general level. It will also enable individuals and suppliers to investigate and analyse data, as well as compose news stories about procurement in the public sector.

Plan for commitment (Milestones | Expected outcome | Expected completion date)

1. Open data and statistics on public announcements, as well as statistics based on eBevis. 2. Statistics from accounting data and supplier information for public agencies 3. Statistics on climate and environmentally friendly procurement 4. Results and data from the procurement survey | 1. Open data provides detailed insight into announcements made on Doffin, as well as statistics from the electronic collection of documentary evidence. 2. Provides insight into what expenses public agencies actually incur, within which categories, and which suppliers have large market shares within the public sector. 3. Better follow-up of the share of green procurement. 4. Overview of public agencies’ work with procurement. | 2024

Action Plan Review

Commitment 1. Public procurement data

Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Fisheries (NFD); Norwegian Agency for Public and Financial Management (DFØ); Department of National IT Policy and Public Governance (DFD); Transparency International Norway.

For a complete description of the commitment, see Commitment 1 in: https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/norway-action-plan-2023-2027-december.

Context and objectives

This commitment responds to the need for better procurement data in Norway. [1] The public procurement process has been a longstanding shared priority of government and civil society stakeholders. [2] Norway’s 2019–2022 action plan included a commitment on digitizing the public procurement process. That commitment achieved limited completion due to issues of data availability and legislative barriers related to data protection. [3] Some progress has been made since in standardizing the data transfer formats between different steps of the procurement process on the Doffin platform, Norway’s central public procurement database. [4]

This commitment aims to make more data on public procurement available and to create a stable framework for managing procurement data centrally at the Norwegian Agency for Public and Financial Management (DFØ). It focuses on publishing data of public announcements on Doffin, statistics of accounting data and supplier information for public agencies, data and statistics on climate and environmentally friendly public procurement, as well as results and data from the biannual DFØ procurement survey. [5] All milestones are expected to be completed by the end of 2024.

Potential for results: Substantial

This commitment is important especially since a public procurement committee has been appointed to review regulations and propose changes for review in the Norwegian parliament. [6] This commitment could make more data on public procurement in Norway available. Additionally, the collection of green and environmentally friendly procurement data is a novelty for Norway. The commitment is relevant to the OGP value of transparency, as it will increase the types of available public procurement data.

Currently, the use of e-procurement is mandatory for all contracting authorities or entities involved in public contracts exceeding NOK 1.4 million (€117,000). [7] Purchases over this threshold are also announced on Doffin. [8] However, while procurement plans, tender notices, bidding documents, and award notices are published on Doffin, there are no structured data i.e., highly organized and easily decipherable data by machine learning algorithms. [9] Therefore, the publication of structured data could lead to more clarity in the procurement process by providing an overview of trends in the sector. It is also unclear if some categories of data and statistics in the commitment would constitute high value public procurement data for end users. Furthermore, while the inclusion of statistics is a positive step, users would be able to independently produce statistics if structured data is published online. [10]

This commitment has substantial potential for results if the DFØ takes the needs and interests of end users into consideration. Overcoming those technical and legal issues in publishing public procurement data could allow interested groups to have information in open format for monitoring and accountability and to identify trends and areas of opportunity in the sector, ultimately ensuring public integrity in the public procurement system. Access to this information could also support media investigation of public procurement. In addition, access to statistical data on green procurement would allow government offices and the public to better understand the environmental impact of procurement and continue advancing in its implementation.

The Open Contracting Partnership (OCP) has highlighted the importance of publishing green and environmentally friendly procurement data in meeting the European Commission’s Green New Deal policy objectives. Doing so holds the potential to demonstrate the value of publishing such data to other countries, especially in the Nordic region. [11]The new public procurement regulations that were adopted in January 2024 mandate that all contracting authorities must weigh climate and environmental considerations as award criteria with a minimum of 30% of the total criteria assessed. [12] DFØ data show that in 2024 about 75% of public procurement contracts in 2024 have an environmental weighing of 30% or more or include environmental criteria, compared to around 50% in 2023. [13] While the DFØ has started collecting this data, a civil society stakeholder expressed uncertainty about what ‘environmentally friendly procurement’ means in practice, as well as the establishment of the technical solution to publish this kind of data. [14]

Opportunities, challenges, and recommendations during implementation

It will be important for the DFØ to engage all relevant ministries in the publication of public procurement data. This commitment could face similar challenges to the previous commitment on digitizing the public procurement process. [15] Data protection laws could again prevent the publication of certain categories of public procurement data, a challenge which the commitment does not directly address. [16] A civil society stakeholder suggested that the government could start by publishing non-sensitive data in the short term. [17] Data ownership is also an issue because, while the DFØ collects public procurement data, neither the DFØ nor the Ministry of Finance own the data. The DFØ must reach out to each public agency individually when collecting public procurement data, which is time-consuming in practice. Compliance is another challenge as public agencies do not always report the winner of public procurement contracts. [18]

For the midterm refresh, the IRM recommends the following: