Supervision of European public procurement practice required

Splitting up contracts at odds with centralisation of government procurement

The Dutch government wants public bodies to split up public procurement contracts into smaller contracts that are more accessible to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This measure, however, is at odds with the government's aim of saving costs by working with fewer procurement procedures for larger contracts. Furthermore, too many public bodies do not fully comply with the European procurement rules. More supervision is required. The Netherlands Court of Audit presents these conclusions in a report entitled 'European Public Procurement' published on 27 November 2012.