Central Procurement Office
The Central Procurement Office (CPO) of Croatia is a professional service that was set up in January 2010 for the Republic of Croatia. The aim behind the service is to run joint public procurement actions in central state administration bodies.
With the creation of the Office, Croatia envisages to create an effective system of central public procurement with responsibilities towards the taxpayer, state budget, its staff and all economic actors involved in public procurement. Such a move is anticipated to bring about savings in public consumption and drive the market for small and medium enterprises, whilst creating an optimum relationship between the quality and price of procured supplies, works and services that respect environmental and socially responsible principles.
Sustainable Procurement Activities
The CPO will establish joint procurement of its products and services by overseeing the coordination of its central procurement activities, carrying out market research, planning the implementation of procurement procedures, setting up and managing a database of awarded contracts and framework agreements, and submitting statistical reports to the Government of the Republic of Croatia.
In its mission, the CPO will endeavour to implement advanced technologies in public procurement procedures, administrate the central procurement portal, and publish awarded contracts based on framework agreements. With this mission in mind, the Office will draw up tender documents which include sustainability requirements, whilst overseeing existing contracts and framework agreements. It will analyse the effectiveness of central procurement by regularly monitoring savings made and use these results as a basis for drawing up future product and service proposals.
Furthermore, the CPO will be promoting sustainable procurement through a network of procurers in Croatia. The network will be a forum for offering a number of support functions on sustainable procurement. Free advice to procurement officers, workshops on sustainable procurement, researching new approaches and participation in European projects will be some of the network’s key activities.
