Introduction
The indicators below provide generic information on public procurement in a way that is transparent and easy to understand and compare.
Like all indicators, however, they simplify reality. They are affected by country-specific factors such as what is actually being bought, the structure of the economies concerned, and the relationships between different tendering options, none of which are taken into account. In some cases, a large number of tenders below EU thresholds are published in TED. This publication is voluntary and considered a good practice, as it increases transparency for a significant part of the procurement not covered by the EU rules (for tenders below the EU thresholds, national rules apply, which nevertheless must respect the general principles of EU law). Moreover, some aspects of public procurement have been omitted entirely or covered only indirectly, e.g. corruption, the administrative burden and professionalism. Although the scoreboard provides useful information, it gives only a partial view of EU countries’ public procurement performance. As a result, the indicators should be interpreted carefully, ideally in the light of additional quantitative and qualitative information. Additionally, it is important to note that, for now, we only work with notices/notifications/eForms, which further limits the scope of the analysis by focusing on certain aspects of the procurement process while excluding others.
The data currently available for analysis spans multiple years and countries. It includes datasets for TED, covering the complete years from 2021 to 2024; Austria from 2017 to 2024; Germany, Finland, and Norway for 2023 and 2024. The data from all sources is being updated regularly for 2025 data.
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Data Quality
The indicators below provide the results of several data quality issues assessed in the PPDS on the data collected from the different data sources.
Data Quality Overview
Assessment of data quality issues in public procurement data
Missing previous publication number
Proportion of contracts awarded after a call for tender for which the Contract Notice number is not provided.
Missing Tenderer Registration Number
Proportion of contracts that did not include the supplier's registration number.
Missing Buyer Registration Number
Proportion of procedures that did not include the buyer’s registration number.
Public Procurement Overview
The indicators below provide generic information on public procurement.
Procedures Divided into Lots
Proportion of procurement procedures that are divided into lots.
Competition
The indicators below measure the participation of bidders in the tendering processes, as well as elements that may foster or increase this participation.
Single bidder
Proportion of contracts awarded where there was just a single bidder.
Direct Awards
Proportion of procurement procedures awarded without any call for bids.
Strategic Procurement
The indicators below provide information related to strategic procurement.
Strategic Procurement
Proportion of procurement procedures with strategic procurement.
SME participation
The indicators below measure the level of participation and of success of SME in the public procurement process
Contracts with SME participation
Proportion of contracts that are awarded to smaller firms (small and medium-sized enterprises or SMEs).
SME bids
Proportion of bids from small and medium-sized enterprises or SMEs.
Efficiency
The indicators below measure the level of efficiency of the public procurement procedures.
Joint procurement
Proportion of procurement procedures involving more than one public buyer.
Decision speed
Average decision-making period for the award of the contract.
Award criteria based on price alone
Proportion of procedures awarded solely because the offer was the cheapest one available.