| Goal | Establish an authoritative source of quantitative data on public procurement. |
| Responsible for the commitment | DFØ (The Norwegian Agency for Public and Financial Management). |
| Stakeholders | Authorities: Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries (NFD), The Norwegian Agency for Public and Financial Management (DFØ), Ministry of Digitalisation and Public Governance (DFD). Civil society: Transparency International Norge. |
| Time period (to – from) | 2023 – 2027 |
| What is the cause of the problem? | Access to data: often proprietary or entity-specific data is difficult to export or transfer due to legal obstacles or because it is technically labour-intensive. Technical data management solutions in DFØ: data management, both a technical data platform and expertise for operation and development, requires capacity and resources. The goal is to establish stable and secure framework conditions for the management of procurement-relevant data that enables. |
There is a need for knowledge about the management of public procurement. This knowledge is needed both as a basis for overarching policy formulation and to follow up on overarching political goals.
The need for better data on public procurement has previously been mentioned by, among others, the OECD and the Office of the Auditor General, as well as in DFØ’s letter of allocation (only in Norwegian).
In addition, public agencies need data to be able to manage their procurement effectively and efficiently. To obtain a comprehensive picture of the agencies’ procurement costs, systematic procurement analyses must be prepared that show who buys what and from which suppliers (spend analysis).
DFØ’s (The Norwegian Agency for Public and Financial Management) ambition is to promote openness in public procurement by sharing raw data, analyses and statistics. The public can thus to a greater extent control and scrutinise data from procurement processes, but also from actual purchases and consumption. In addition, suppliers can use this data to build solutions and services that the general public and the public sector can use to gain better insight.
Examples of data DFØ wants to make available:
- Data on public announcements to obtain a better knowledge base about
procurements made on Doffin. This includes raw data from the Doffin.no
solution, together with aggregated statistics. - Statistics from the use of eBevis. eBevis is a service for electronic collection of documentary evidence from various public registers.
- Statistics from accounting data and supplier information for public agencies.
- Data and statistics on climate and environmentally friendly public procurement.
- Data and statistics on the results of the procurement survey.
DFØ’s ambition is to make data available in the form of statistics and finished
analyses on dfo.no and anskaffelser.no, as well as open data on
data.norge.no and data.dfo.no.
Sharing data and statistics lays the foundation for the public and others to engage with public agencies to a greater extent. Predictability is made possible through detailed information about procurements, such as who the contracting authority is, what they procure, who wins the contract, the volume of the contract, and so on.
What has been done so far to solve the problem?
- DFØ has established ANS datasjø. A cloud solution and data platform for data management.
- DFØ has established the domain data.dfo.no (only in Norwegian) where open data will be published.
- DFØ has carried out legal investigations into access to accounting and invoice data in dialogue with Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries (NFD).
Expected outcome
- Improved data-based knowledge and openness about public procurement.
- Data on public procurement can meet the needs of several target groups for access and knowledge.
- Clarification of DFØ’s role as a premise provider and primary source of quantitative
data on public procurement. - Detailed insight into announcements made on Doffin, as well as statistics from the electronic collection of documentary evidence (eBevis).
- Insight into expenses and suppliers through accounting data and supplier information for public agencies.
- Better follow-up of the share of green procurement.
- Overview of public agencies’ work with procurement.