Municipalities in Finland are finding that new tendering legislation designed to promote cross-border trade in the EU may not be working as planned. Last year, new EU-driven legislation was introduced, requiring municipalities to tender across the EU for projects costing more than 130,000 Euros. However, they have found that few offers come from abroad, and when they do, they may not be the best options. A YLE investigation looked at how 15 municipalities fared using the new tendering procedure. It found that the law meant that many projects - from providing school transportation to construction work - are now subject to the EU tendering requirement. In Finland, projects costing more than 15,000 euros are subject to public tenders. If the bottom line for a project crosses the 130,000-euro mark, then it must be offered to prospective contractors from across the EU. This kind of regional tender requires time and expertise - very often, smaller municipalities are short of both. Tuuli Tarukannel, legal affairs consultant with the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities says in small municipalities, people with responsibilities in certain areas usually end up working on tenders themselves. "For example, if an individual is responsible for social or school services, then the expertise is in that area, and there is no skill in procurement matters. Larger municipalities might have their own procurement services," she explained. In the year since the new directive came into force, Finnish municipalities have opened up as many as 2,000 tenders across the EU. However, offers have come from abroad only occasionally, mostly from Estonia and from other Nordic countries. The aim of the directive is to encourage cross-border competition for the supply of goods and services, but Finland's municipalities are simply too distant. Tarukannel said that if certain services must be delivered to small municipalities using the Finnish language, then it just doesn't make sense to source them from the other side of the world, or even in the EU. Belgian Seedlings for Helsinki's Kaivopuisto
Once case involved the procurement of lime trees for Helsinki's Kaivopuisto. The Public Works Department put out a tender for seedlings across the EU, in accordance with the new law. Seedlings from Belgium won the tender.
The irony was that they had to be chosen according to the law, although they were clearly unfit for the Finnish climate. This exposes one catch-22 in the legislation.
"Municipal authorities have realised that either requests for offers have been vague, or that bidders have not understood the requests," said Tarukannel.
The next few months will reveal whether Helsinki officials can successfully define the Kaivopuisto tender so that instead of the cheapest offer winning out, the one best suited to Finnish conditions will be selected.
At worst, the fate of the seedlings will be determined by the Market Court, where a raft of similar cases awaits.