1) Professionalization of public procurement aims to improve the quality of procurement procedures, not as an end in itself. 2) Croatia introduced a structured certification system in 2009 to meet EU requirements and address practitioner needs, though training was difficult for small authorities due to costs and distance. 3) Croatia's initial system was too demanding and infeasible, so a smaller-scale mandatory certification system was introduced requiring 50 hours of training, an exam, and 32 hours of renewal every three years without education prerequisites.

1. © OECD
Professionalization of public
procurement
Support for professionalization of the
public procurement community in Croatia
Maja Kušt, Croatia,
Bečići, Montenegro, 13 – 14 June 2018

2. Professionalization of PP
• It is not question if professionalization is
needed, but rather how to introduce it!
• No point of professionalization as an end to
itself
• Final result should reflect in improved quality
of public procurement procedures
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3. Development of Croatian system
• 2009 – introduction of the structured system
and certification
 demands of the EU accession process
 tackling needs of public procurement practitioners
• PP officers working in small contracting authorities
didn’t have adequate access to training
– more emphasised on local level – lack of budget; training
has never been priority for heads/officials; geographical
distance (majority of events only in big towns)
• It is not question if professionalization is
needed, but rather how to introduce it! 2

4. Development of Croatian system
• Questions when establishing system:
 Should it be obligatory?
 Introduction of certificates?
• Duration of training for obtaining certificate?
• Exam – yes or no? Written or oral?
• Requirements on specific level of education (university) -
yes or no?
 Renewal of certificates? How, when?
 Who should conduct training? Trainers? PPO
employees?
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5. Development of Croatian system
• Some of the first ideas – very demanding and
not feasible
 e.g. 130 hours of obligatory training, specific
obligatory masters course at universities, training
carried out only by small number of trainers that
had passed some very demanding programmes
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6. Development of Croatian system
• Final decision making
 better to introduce smaller scale system that is not
to demanding and that could be implemented in
practice
• experience in Croatia in various sectors – introduction of
number of very demanding and idealistic solutions that
are not functioning in practice
 there is always room for follow-up upgrade of the
system
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7. Set-up of introduced system
• Introduced elements
 obligatory possession of certificate for at least one
participating in procurement procedure
 requirements for certificate
• 50 hours training programme and exam
 renewal of certificate – every three years based on
32 hours of training programmes
 no requirements on education background for
obtaining certificate
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8. Set-up of introduced system
• Introduced elements
 training is carried out by authorised carriers
• authorisation is issued by the Directorate for Public
Procurement System
• market-driven system
 exam is held by the Directorate for Public
Procurement System
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9. Lessons learned
• Based on Croatian system, but also on
experience of other countries
• Croatia - system is still in place, with only small
fine-tunings
• Key advice – put in place only what you can
manage and control
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10. Lessons learned
• Important to find right level of “obligatory” in
order to be implemented in practice, but with
right level of burden
 Croatia - person holding a certificate has to
participate in every procedure, but it doesn’t have
to be an employee of a contracting authority
• he/she can be engaged in specific procedure – good
option for small contracting authorities
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11. Lessons learned
 If there are requirements on employment of PP
professionals, it is important to put in place all
required conditions
• at various levels – national, local
• crucial financial aspect
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12. Lessons learned
• Very important issue on participation of PPO
employees in training
 possible benefits
• PPO employees have extensive knowledge on legal
framework and its implementation
• familiar with PPO position on specific topics
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13. Lessons learned
• Very important issue on participation of PPO
employees in training
 shortcomings
• question of engagement in training organised by other
institutions, especially private
• required time (working hours or not?) and availability
• large risk of conflict of interest (e.g. if PPO holds an
exam), question of fees
• PPO employees are usually not practitioners
– important part of training
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14. Lessons learned
• Very important issue on participation of PPO
employees in training
 Croatia
• no participation of PPO employees
• internal instruction – possible future amendments
• exemption – training organised by the State School for
Public Administration
 if PPO employees are participating in carrying out
obligatory training – good system to enable
participation of other experts
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15. Lessons learned
• Requirements on specific level of education
(e.g. university)
 Croatia – no requirements
• number of excellent PP experts doesn’t have university
degree
• all fields are relevant for PP procedures – law, economics
and finance, technical sciences,...
 If their is requirement on university degree – good
system to enable compensation with specific
experience – for example, 10 years of experience
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16. Lessons learned
• PPOs – important role in enabling as much as
possible implementing tools available to
everyone
 instructions, manuals, guidelines
 the best way to steer the quality and content of
training
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17. © OECD
THANK YOU FOR YOUR
ATTENTION!
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