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Dokumentation af offentlige grønne indkøb
The main objective of the project is to develop simple and non-bureaucratic tools to be
used for the documentation of the development of public green procurement. This objective
is stated in the circular3 agreement4 on environmental protection and energy conservation relating
to public green procurement.
At the outset, a comprehensive survey, by way of telephone interviews, was carried out
in counties and municipalities. In this way, it has been possible to map a number of
issues concerning organisation of procurement, procurement policies and applied IT
systems. Corresponding information on public procurement has been acquired from other
sources as well as visits to The Danish National Railway Agency. In addition, knowledge
has been gathered from other projects on public procurement completed by KPMG Consulting.
This survey confirmed the assumption that the public sector is very differently organised
in terms of procurement. This fact is one of the central challenges to be dealt with when
documenting public green procurement.
Also, the quality and availability of data of various players have been examined, and
Danmarks Statistik (Central Bureau of Statistics) calculated the total public procurement
at DKK 140 billion in 1997.
A survey by means of questionnaires has also been developed and carried through. The
survey is to give an account of public green procurement and e-business in the public
sector. At the same time, the survey allows us to test the questionnaire as a tool for
future documentation of the development of public green procurement.
The survey was carried out mid 2000 and comprised 275 municipalities, 14 counties, 20
departments and 100 government institutions. The response rate is satisfactory, 93% of the
counties, 77% of the municipalities and 82% of the government institutions having replied.
In particular, the survey aims at illustrating to what extent public enterprises live
up to the intentions stated in the circular5/agreement6 on environmental protection and energy conservation
relating to public green procurement. The survey includes questions concerning the
general/organisational measures available for public entities in their efforts to ensure
green procurement, including whether the entity has a procurement policy, whether it has
been communicated to underlying departments and institutions, and whether steps have been
taken to follow up on the policy. The survey also includes questions concerning the
pattern of behaviour seen in the individual procurement situation, including the
intensions underlying the procurement as well as the tools applied to obtain green
knowledge of goods and services. The public entities have also been asked to evaluate the
extent of green procurement and the status of implementing the target areas of the
coordination group. Finally, the survey contains questions concerning e-business,
including information about the current status, future plans and intensions.
The results of the survey have been stated in a separate report: "Dokumentation af
offentlige grønne indkøb, sammenfatning og analyse af
spørgeskemaundersøgelse"(Documentation of public green procurement; summary and
analysis of questionnaire survey), March 2001.
Based on the experiences from the first survey, KPMG assesses that a periodically
recurring questionnaire survey is a useful solution for the collection of basic
documentation on public green procurement and evaluation of the development of public
green procurement. On the basis of input from the steering group, proposals have been made
for minor adjustments to the design of the survey already completed. The adjustments are
to optimise future surveys and ensure a continued high response rate and consistent,
reliable information in the responses.
Evaluation of the development by means of a questionnaire will be based on qualitative
indicators as opposed to economic calculations.
As part of the project, five module systems have been described for procurement via
e-business and the usefulness of four of the modules has been assessed in relation to
stipulated criteria. The described modules comprise procurement via electronic shops,
electronic procurement systems, electronic market places and electronic auctions. The
usefulness of all but the last one has been evaluated in relation to the documentation of
public green procurement and a cross-comparison has been made.
The result of our evaluation of the existing ways of doing e-business is that
electronic procurement systems are the only e-businesses possibilities which, together,
are considered suitable to support the documentation of green procurement. All four ways
of doing e-business are expected to continue in the coming years just as new ways of doing
business may turn up.
If the public sector wishes to influence the four ways of doing e-business for them to
support green procurement in as far as possible, we recommend that requirements be made
for each solution to be complied with. Suggestions for such requirements have been further
mentioned in the report and also, two new e-procurement systems have been evaluated (KMD
WebIndkøb and Rak@t from Roskilde County).
Another two registration and calculation methods (calculation via registration of
procurement at account/invoice and item number level, respectively) have been examined as
part of the project. None of these methods are recommended, however, as it is not
possible, in a simple and non-bureaucratic way, to document the scope of green procurement
in the systems currently used by government, counties and municipalities neither for
single items nor commodities.