Cost overrun and procurement competence in Sweden

In an interview with the news agency Dagens Samhälle, Giancarlo Spagnolo proposes measures regarding master's programs at universities in public procurement and certification of public procurers, better statistics, better career paths and the possibility of higher salaries for talented public procurers. These measures would lead to more cost-effective procurement and higher quality, according to Giancarlo Spagnolo, professor of Economics and based in Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE), Stockholm School of Economics. He has recently written a new SNS report that was presented today during the SNS webinar "How to improve public procurement".

"Higher competence is indeed needed, and public authorities must also be able to pay for it and offer talented public procurers career paths so that they do not go to the private sector", according to Giancarlo Spagnolo.

Requirements for higher education in public procurement and some type of certification have been discussed in Sweden before. It is high time that it is introduced, believes Giancarlo Spagnolo, who previously was, among other things, head of research for Italy's Central Procurement Agency.

"I'm just saying that there is new knowledge developed in other countries that have 20-30 years of experience of these problems, which Sweden has not learned yet", says Giancarlo Spagnolo.

According to Dagens Samhälle, the problems Giancarolo Spagnolo refers to include how to create good evaluation criteria and contracts that really make the winning company adhere to what was promised in the offer.