Amendments to the Finnish Act on Public Procurement and Concession Contracts
The Finnish Government has proposed to reform the Act on Public Procurement and Concession Contracts (1397/2016, the Act). The Government submitted its proposal to Parliament on 25 August 2022. The changes are mostly due to come into force on 1 January 2023. Generally, the Finnish Government proposes to increase consideration of environmental aspects, quality and responsibility in public procurement. The changes would apply in procurement both national as well as above EU thresholds.
Firstly, the changes aim to improve the quality and accountability of public procurement by emphasising the importance of ecological, social and economic sustainability in public procurement. The change aims to emphasise and strengthen the integration of environmental considerations as part of the procurement process and at its different stages. Procurement accountability would be enhanced by adding a provision to the Act making a judgment with a judicial force for certain environmental offences a mandatory ground for exclusion.
Secondly, the aim of the changes is also to emphasise the importance of quality as a criterion for selecting a tender. In order to increase the efficiency of public procurement and to take into account qualitative criteria, the Act will be developed to direct contracting entities to give priority to quality-price-ratio and total costs as criteria for overall economy and to limit the use of price alone as a criterion. The contracting entity should continue to be able to define and implement its public procurement in the way it sees fit. However, the aim would be to promote openness and transparency as to how the contracting entity has taken quality into account in a given public procurement. All in all, the contracting entities are required to explain how quality has been taken into account in the public procurement, according to the changes.
Additionally, the proposed amendments to the Act would, among other things, promote bilingualism in public procurement, as provide a contracting entity possibility to publish public procurement material in other official EU languages as well.
Secondly, the aim of the changes is also to emphasise the importance of quality as a criterion for selecting a tender. In order to increase the efficiency of public procurement and to take into account qualitative criteria, the Act will be developed to direct contracting entities to give priority to quality-price-ratio and total costs as criteria for overall economy and to limit the use of price alone as a criterion. The contracting entity should continue to be able to define and implement its public procurement in the way it sees fit. However, the aim would be to promote openness and transparency as to how the contracting entity has taken quality into account in a given public procurement. All in all, the contracting entities are required to explain how quality has been taken into account in the public procurement, according to the changes.
Additionally, the proposed amendments to the Act would, among other things, promote bilingualism in public procurement, as provide a contracting entity possibility to publish public procurement material in other official EU languages as well.
