Solving Procurement Disputes without Going to Court

Ellen Hausel Heldahl

Head of Department, Department for enforcement of public procurement laws

Swedish Competition Authority

Procurement process

Remedies

• Review of a procurement procedure

• Review of the effectiveness of an agreement

• Damages

• Public Procurement fine

29 procent of procurement above threshold

Källa: Visma Opic och Konkurrensverket 2012.

2009 2010 20110

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

14000

16000

41714911

5513

1303513814 13801

överunder

Percentage of review in relation to the number of bidders per contract

Källa: Visma Opic och Konkurrensverket 2012.

Antal anbudsgivare per upphandling

Antal upphandlingar Varav över prövade Andel

0 20 0 0 %

1 1 546 9 6 %

2 2 231 91 4 %

3-7 5 950 391 7 %

8-12 814 71 9 %

13-19 239 38 16 %

20-29 100 24 24 %

30- 53 19 36 %

Uppgift saknas 8 361 677 8 %Samtliga 19 314 1 320 7 %

Number of review to court year 2003-2012

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 20120

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

875

11251280

1539

1129

1428

2083

3572

2754

3265

210319 345 382 334 371 410

587755 771

51 77 85 158 100 123 124 109257 218

Förvaltningsrätt Kammarrätt Högsta förvaltningsdomstol

Statistics

2010 – 18 755 procurements

75 % of all procurements under the EU-thresholds

7 % of all procurements are being reviewed

17 % review for contracts relating to food, postal and telecommunication services, furniture, hearing aid

12 % review for contracts relating to software and information systems

12 % review for contracts relation to education and training

Suppliers received acclaim in the Administrative Court in 31 percent of the cases

An arbitration function for structural problems• A mediator – a third party – responsible for

helping to identify problems and to help find long-term solutions

• Structural problems in particular industries, products or geographic areas – not to be involved in individual contracts

Contact the mediator

• The mediator gets involved after an application from an authority or supplier – convening representatives from the industry in question and contracting authorities

• Together they are responsible for analyzing and work out a solution

Solutions

• A more optimal evaluation model for the specific product

• A split of contracts awarded in different categories or products

• Standardization of parts of the specification • Various forms of dialogue• Introduction of life-cycle perspective • How bids can be compared or how suppliers more

optimally describe their activities for easier comparison between different offers

Effect

• The mediation function should under current legislation improve and streamline procurement and competition in a specific procurement market

• Benefit for both the public and the providers• The number of trials decreases