From the Managing Director
The central purchasing body of the government – and regions
Central government procurement is experiencing strong tail winds. In 2016, a total of over €770 million was used to purchase goods and services with our agreements, a 10 per cent increase on the previous year.
In addition to joint procurement, we offer help with the tendering processes of our customers’ acquisitions that cannot be implemented jointly. This tendering service has proven necessary and very popular. Last year we took part in 160 different tendering processes of our customers, valued at €340 million in total.
In accordance with our new strategy, we act as a reformer of procurement services. This can be seen in different ways in our operations. For our customers, we have launched a third service alongside joint procurement and the tendering service: the development of procurement. This service started with all the activity around government procurement. The procurement development project HANKO has ended, and measures are being implemented at full speed in the procurement digitalisation project called Handi. With these projects and the new Act on Public Contracts, requirements for procurement services are increasing significantly. In this development work, Hansel’s experts and the electronic tools offered by Hansel can be of assistance to government agencies.
The development of procurement is also supported by the fact that Hansel now has all government procurement data at its disposal, not merely on joint procurement but also on all acquisitions made by government. Analyses made from this data will serve the development of government procurement to a significant extent. We will publish information on government acquisitions in the citizens’ portal that is open to everyone.
The goal of all these three services – joint procurement, the tendering service, and the procurement development service – is to increase productivity in government procurement. Of course, Hansel is much more than that. Issues that are important for us include promoting innovations, having efficient markets, retaining competition, and providing smaller businesses the opportunity to become a contract supplier for government. The central procurement unit, which consolidates acquisitions, must not eliminate competition from the marketplace but promote it.
For years, we have worked to ensure that an ever greater share of government acquisitions fulfil the criteria of environmental, financial and social responsibility. You can read more about this work in our Corporate Responsibility Report below.
The reform in health and social services and regional government will be the biggest upheaval of administration in our lifetime. This reform will significantly affect Hansel as well, since regions are about to become new customers of ours. We can support regions, which are about to begin operation, through good cooperation and procedures that have been proven effective. Well-organised procurement, where the various operators have clear roles, will produce a significant share of the savings sought through the reform in health and social services and regional government.
Warm thanks to our customers, contract suppliers and Hansel employees for a successful 2016!
Anssi Pihkala
