Establish an enabling environment
Build support and capabilities
The design of a public procurement process can limit or facilitate the application of Open SPP practices. In this section we include approaches to procurement that can be useful to introduce Open SPP practices. Procuring agencies should openly communicate, for each procurement process, which of these approaches will be taken, and how they are underpinned by the Open SPP enabling framework.
<aside> <img src="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/2f59e61c-419f-4e11-a6ca-846c5fe7d094/Idea_Red.png" alt="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/2f59e61c-419f-4e11-a6ca-846c5fe7d094/Idea_Red.png" width="40px" /> One procurement approach that can be very helpful when starting to implement sustainable practices in public procurement is to divide projects into pilot and scale phases. This can be especially useful for testing risky and uncertain assumptions. During the pilot phase, data should be clearly captured and should feed into the scaling phase.
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Outcome-based procurement can be another way to start implementing SPP. Applying an outcome-based procurement approach consists in framing purchasing needs in terms of the outcome that should be achieved, rather than how to achieve that outcome, allowing the supplier market to offer different solutions.
<aside> <img src="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/2f59e61c-419f-4e11-a6ca-846c5fe7d094/Idea_Red.png" alt="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/2f59e61c-419f-4e11-a6ca-846c5fe7d094/Idea_Red.png" width="40px" /> For more guidance and examples of how to shape procurement approaches to achieve sustainability outcomes, we recommend referring to the Harvard Kennedy School’s Government Performance Lab guidance on “Results-Driven Contracting”. For a case study on how to design a procurement process based on achieving desired outcomes see the Wichita Ground Maintenance Contracts example developed at the end of this section.
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Using two-stage procurement procedures, entails the possibility of establishing an ongoing dialogue, and openly disclosing information, between suppliers and procurement practitioners.
One of the procurement approaches that you can take within SPP implementation is joint procurement. This approach refers to the collaboration of multiple public authorities on a specific procurement. This collaboration can include jointly conducting early-stage market testing and engagement at the beginning of a procurement, or jointly tendering or contracting with a supplier, during the execution of a procurement.
<aside> <img src="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/c6f39a6e-fedd-4334-8b1d-a3506dec4623/Pin_Red.png" alt="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/c6f39a6e-fedd-4334-8b1d-a3506dec4623/Pin_Red.png" width="40px" /> Throughout this toolkit, we have provided guidance on the use of frameworks, catalogs, and registries to implement SPP. When selecting your procurement approach, consider the availability of these mechanisms (e.g. catalogs of suppliers that meet certain environmental standards) that can facilitate the selection of more sustainable suppliers.
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<aside> <img src="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/0dd57070-66ba-4b3d-869f-a08360a58d3b/Idea_Red.png" alt="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/0dd57070-66ba-4b3d-869f-a08360a58d3b/Idea_Red.png" width="40px" /> For more guidance on procurement approaches that can be useful when implementing Open SPP in specific procurement categories, see the sections on Construction and ICT.
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<aside> <img src="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/6290cf1a-2b95-4650-9594-492c0cee5467/Notion-others.png" alt="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/6290cf1a-2b95-4650-9594-492c0cee5467/Notion-others.png" width="40px" /> Resources
<aside> <img src="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/e2f0a39b-b18d-4e4b-9aee-a621d1907e21/Icons_Grey4.png" alt="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/e2f0a39b-b18d-4e4b-9aee-a621d1907e21/Icons_Grey4.png" width="40px" /> Case study
In 2015, Wichita, the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas, aimed to improve the quality of the city’s parks while reducing costs. At the time, grounds maintenance bid amounts were up 30 percent over the prior year, contractors were not meeting quality standards, and City officials were receiving complaints regarding the height of the grass on playgrounds and playing fields.
With help from the Harvard Government Performance Lab, the city created a data collection tool which inspectors could use in the field to track performance on key indicators (including grass height, prevalence of weeds and property damage). They then conducted a competitive procurement where, for the first time, the City considered factors such as past performance and ability to report on key metrics as part of the vendor selection. The Purchasing Department also divided large land areas into smaller parcels, and reached out to vendors that had not previously bid on the City’s contracts. The new contracts replaced punitive damages for under-performance with a 5 percent performance bonus to incentivize strong performance. Vendors submitted invoices with pictures of the completed work. This eliminated the need for City staff to perform on-site inspections.
With this approach, the city boosted overall competition (the number of vendors submitting responses rose by 38 percent) without raising the costs. What is more important, complaints to the City Manager about grounds maintenance fell substantially.
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