Quick facts
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Countries: Greece |
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Year of assessment: 2019-2022 |
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Procurement value: EUR 3.2 billion (2021) |
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Principal organisation: Hellenic Single Public Procurement Authority (HSPPA) |
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Main partners: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), European Commission |
Background
The MAPS process was initiated to take stock of a decade of procurement reforms initiated in Greece since the 2010s, and to give further enhance the performance of the overall procurement system. The assessment was initiated by the Hellenic Single Public Procurement Authority (HSPPA), i.e. the main body with responsibilities over public procurement.
In 2022, during the assessment period, the institutional landscape of public procurement was further reformed with the merger of HSPPA and the Review Body AEPP into a single administrative body with overall procurement responsibilities, with the goal of exploiting synergies and using resources more effectively.
The Greek procurement system is regulated by EU Directives as well as applicable national regulations.
Process
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The MAPS assessment started in September 2019 and was concluded in summer 2022. In addition to reviewing legal documents, available data and publications about the Greek procurement system, the assessment relied on fact-finding interviews with a wide range of procurement stakeholders. This included contracting authorities, centralised procurement body (CPB), oversight bodies, representatives from the private sector, etc. The report was successively updated following substantive procurement reforms occurred during the assessment period (procurement legislation reform in 2021 and institutional reform in 2022). A validation workshop was held in May 2022 with the main procurement stakeholders. Furthermore, the assessment gathered a sample of procurement contracts from a diverse group of contracting authorities to assess procurement practices. |
Key results and impacts
Public procurement remains an important reform topic in Greece, particularly in light of significant funding coming through the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), i.e. a European instrument designed to finance reforms and investments in the EU Member States to address the green and digital transitions. Much of the implementation of such funding relies on public procurement as a key enabler. As part of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP), Greece has committed to the “adoption of legislation providing for professional work streams for staff dealing with public procurement”. In this context, the MAPS assessment contributes to bringing together stakeholders around the priorities for public procurement reform in the upcoming years, including the following identified areas for improvement:
- Safeguarding the stability of Greece’s legal and regulatory framework by eliminating ex-post legalisation of faulty procedures
- Streamlining governance of procurement by reducing the fragmentation of responsibilities
- Upgrading the e-procurement and information system, making data open, accessible, usable and increasing transparency
- Strengthening centralisation, in particular in the health sector
- Increasing professionalisation by, inter alia, recognising procurement as a specific function in the public administration and developing a comprehensive training strategy
- Improve procurement practices through better capacity throughout the procurement cycle
- Enhancing integrity through a comprehensive risk management approach and increased day-to-day support to practitioners
- Strengthening the control framework and related professionalisation of the audit function
Lessons learned
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