23 February 2011 | Angeline
Albert
Suppliers
across the European Union (EU) have greater access to e-procurement services, but
participation by vendors outside the host nation remains poor.
A
report by the European Commission (EC),
DigitizingPublic Services in Europe: putting ambition into action, published this week examined EU
member states’ e-procurement progress and adoption.
Between
2009 and 2010 the visibility of business opportunities for suppliers on
e-procurement portals increased from 56 per cent to 71 per cent. However, this
meant the EU has missed the goal it proposed in 2005 to make all procurement
online by 2010.
Despite
the growth, the report said, on average, just 5 per cent of the total vendors
registered on each e-procurement platform were foreign. Ireland was a notable
exception, where 25 per cent of its 62,000 registered suppliers on its national
e-procurement system were not domestic.
“This
high level of foreign registration is quite an exception as in most countries
e-procurement solutions tend to focus on domestic suppliers,” said the report. “This
is certainly an important obstacle to the completion of the single market.”
The
report also disclosed many countries do not monitor the benefits achieved from
electronic buying. One example where this does happen is Scotland, which
reported audited savings of almost £800 million over a four-year period.