Abstract
The problem of monitoring public procurement is a vital issue, especially in the European Union (EU), where the free movement of goods is finally established by the “Single European Act”. A monitoring system that could be applied after public procurement contracts have been awarded, would examine and identify the existence both, of corruption and of “buy national” policies and practices (i.e. policies favouring domestic suppliers). In this article, the use of a fuzzy logic system as a monitoring mechanism for public procurement is proposed. Using this system, national or EU surveillance authorities can sort the contractors in a series of categories, identifying the degree of their efficiency. The design and implementation of the proposed fuzzy logic system is presented, followed by demonstrative examples of its operation. This system, which applies mainly to goods and services, can also be used as a decision support system at the stage of the selection process, assisting the choice of the best contractor.
Highlights
The problem of monitoring public procurement is a vital issue, especially in the European Union (EU), where the free movement of goods is established by the “Single European Act”
For the sake of the present study, the following major changes would be required to make the system legally acceptable: Relative values have to replace the existing ones [7]. This approach requires the revision of the Article 48 of EU Directive 2004/18, about technical and professional capacity
A fuzzy logic system was built that monitors public procurement, in order to examine to what extent the selected suppliers might be involved in any awarded contract, or alternatively –especially for EU– to what extent “buy national” policies are applied in practice
Summary
“Buy national” policies, through discrimination practices among bidders, aim at protecting domestic production and employment [1,2,3]. The monitoring authority needs to ask the following question: How can a badly performed supplier (in terms of poor productivity, low market penetration, weak export potential and specialization, etc.) intensively participate to public procurement under free trade rules, without the assistance of any “buy national” techniques?. A fuzzy logic system was built that monitors public procurement, in order to examine to what extent the selected suppliers might be involved in any awarded contract, or alternatively –especially for EU– to what extent “buy national” policies are applied in practice. The fuzzy logic system that is described, examines the degree to which a contractor of any public procurement is “good” or “bad” regarding the supply of a Product (i), in terms of efficiency It can identify if hidden “buy national” policies still exist under free trade rules. This is very important e.g. in cases that someone wants to sort companies based on their efficiency
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