Update of public procurement legislation to create flexibility and opportunities

New acts on public procurement procedures were approved by the President of the Republic on 29.12 2016 and will enter into force on 1.1 2017. The new legislation, which is based on EU public procurement directives, will give contracting authorities better possibilities for making more innovative, sustainable and responsible procurements of a higher quality.

Another objective of the new legislation is to reduce the administrative burden created by the tendering process for both contracting authorities and tenderers by increasing the national threshold values and reducing the requirements of the procurement procedure.

The public procurement legislation obliges public organisations and certain other actors, including parties that are regular beneficiaries of public support, to put their procurements exceeding a certain threshold value in euros up for open and non-discriminatory tender. The procurement legislation applies where these threshold amounts are exceeded.

Under the new acts, the national threshold value for goods and services will go up from the current EUR 30,000 to EUR 60,000. The threshold value for social and health service procurements will increase from EUR 100,000 to 400,000. The national threshold value for building contracts will remain at the current amount of EUR 150,000. Contracts that do not reach these threshold values will be excluded from the scope of application of the procurement legislation.

It is recommended that the contracting authorities divide their contracts into smaller parts that are more suitable for SMEs. Under the new legislation, environmental and social perspectives can be more effectively taken into account. The update will significantly streamline the tendering procedure for lower-value procurements and clarify the key concepts of the act. The act will also allow for flexibility in evaluating tenders and more extensive negotiations as part of the tendering process.

The new procurement legislation will create a level playing field for public and private businesses, as procurements may not be made from organisations under the control of public bodies without a tendering process if these organisations engage in commercial activities to a more significant than minor extent in the market. The task of supervising compliance with the procurement legislation will be assigned to the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority.

Further information:

Senior Government Secretary Markus Ukkola, MEE, tel. +358 (0)29 50 47018