Sustainable and Strategic Public Procurement in Catalonia: An Interview with Anna Ciutat

Former Director of Public Procurement Coordination at Barcelona City Council, Anna Ciutat is now Deputy Director General for the Regulation and Supervision of Public Procurement in Catalonia. The Directorate-General leads the regulation, oversight, and promotion of efficiency, transparency, and integrity in public procurement.

The Catalan Strategy for the Improvement of Public Procurement, adopted in 2022, is now nearing the end of its implementation period. From a strategic point of view, to what extent has it provided guidance and coherence to promote sustainable procurement across the public sector in Catalonia?

The field of sustainable procurement in Catalonia had been focused on training and awareness-raising. With the actions of the strategy, the promotion of sustainable procurement has been taken to a new stage, that of practical application, not only with an increase (more than 50% of contracts incorporating environmental criteria) but also with a qualitative improvement.

The Strategy emphasises the joint responsibility of different departments and public bodies. How has interdepartmental collaboration contributed to its implementation, and what challenges or opportunities have arisen in coordinating these efforts?

The Strategy has been a very effective tool for coordination among the different bodies, public and private entities, and Catalan public administrations. Many of the actions have been carried out within the working groups created for this purpose as part of the monitoring committees. 

It is worth highlighting, for example, that in the working group of Axis 3, for Operational Objective 3.3 — Promoting the participation of SMEs in public procurement — the Government Agreement on measures to foster the participation of SMEs in public procurement in Catalonia was approved. The content of this Agreement was agreed upon in the monitoring committee, with the participation of SME representative entities, trade unions, and the Directorate General for Public Procurement. 

Another example, in this case of inter-administrative collaboration, is the approval of the Competence Framework for professional profiles in public procurement in Catalonia, grounded in the European reference document ProcurComp. The Competence Framework was developed collaboratively with the School of Public Administration and the representative entities of the Catalan Local Administrations, within the framework of the Monitoring Commission of Axis 1.

The Strategy established operational objectives and targets to assess progress. How would you assess the effectiveness of the monitoring system and what have been the most significant results or shortcomings observed so far?

The monitoring system, through monitoring committees (one for each axis of the strategy) made up of people from different fields, both public and private, with knowledge and expertise in procurement, and acting on behalf of the various entities and administrations involved,  has proved very effective. 

We understand that the success of this system has relied on the engagement of the people who are part of each committee, who have been called upon to participate, share, and take responsibility for the achievement of the different actions. Thus, their role has been less supervisory and more collaborative.

As of today, with one year remaining until the conclusion of the Strategy, 126 actions have been carried out, corresponding to 61%.

How has the supplier market responded to the inclusion of environmental criteria in public procurement processes and what trends or challenges have emerged as companies adapt to these requirements?

At this stage, we do not yet have direct data regarding the impact on the supplier market of the inclusion of environmental criteria. What we do know is the number and volume of contracts incorporating environmental measures, meaning contracts in which bidders have proposed environmental measures and contractors have applied them. These data show an increase of 5 percentage points over the last 3 years. Annual reports on the indicators of environmental clauses in public procurement by the Generalitat de Catalunya provide a detailed overview of these trends and their evolution. 

If we compare these figures with those relating to the SMEs contractors who, in the same year, were awarded contracts in Catalonia — representing 70% of procurement — it can be inferred that the incorporation of environmental measures does not negatively affect competition in general, nor the participation of SMEs in particular. 

More information available in this report.

Looking ahead, how will the lessons learned from the impact of the Strategy, both on public procurement practices and on the supplier market, influence the priorities and objectives of the next public procurement strategy beyond 2025?

We still have one year left to take stock of the Strategy’s implementation, a year in which we will conclude many of the actions already underway and work on the objectives for the next four years. However, in an initial analysis, we consider it most positive that the actions have been carried out collaboratively with all the stakeholders involved, and that they have been embraced by the different Governments of the Generalitat over the past three years. 

Looking ahead to the future strategy, it will be necessary to analyse what could not be achieved and why, to review the timelines, and perhaps to be slightly less ambitious regarding the number of actions to be undertaken. 

We also believe that the focus should be placed on analysing the results and the market impact of the Strategy’s measures. As for the content, it is clear that one of the axes must focus on the impact of artificial intelligence on the entire public procurement process.