Analysing procurement policies from party manifestos on the run up to the Portuguese General Election (II)

PS (Socialists)

Looking into this year\s Socialist Party manifesto was a fun exercise for someone living in the UK. It is very easy to gauge what was the inspiration for their approach of having five strategic missions. It comes straight from Labour's 2024 manifesto and the comparisons do not stop there.

Starting with the strategic missions, the Socialists want to harness procurement to deliver them and spur innovation in Portugal via challenges aligned with said missions. This is expected to deploy pre-commercial procurement, procurement of innovation and the aforementioned challenges. I think my views on using procurement to deliver 'strategic objectives' are well known but it is always worth restating that by and large procurement is a means to an end (buying something that is needed). The less complexity we load into the system via additional objectives, the better. This view is valid also for innovation, and while there is some space for it in procurement one should not make mountains out of molehills. It is also worth pointing out that the party leader was the minister responsible for the train tender disaster, the one that was supposed to create a train factory in Portugal. As the saying goes, "I have a bad feeling about this."

The second suggestion from the Socialists is a lot more interesting and goes in line with the perennial problem of capacity and resources. The party is proposing the creation of a planning system to improve the capacity in designing and performing procurement relying on the support from the Centre for Planning and Evaluation of Public Policies – PLANAPP and the Public Works Council, both pre-existing bodies. I do not know what is their exact capacity to help out but this suggestion is capped with the creation of a National Secretariat for Public Investment designed specifically to support public procurement. As far as good ideas go, this one is right on the money. If there will be actual money to make it happen, however, is a different story.

The third proposal from the party is for the creation of a Green Passport for economic operators to help stimulate green procurement in Portugal. The usual caveat applies, that it is not for member States to create certification schemes that put foreign economic operators at a disvadvantage, so 'or equivalent' is applicable here as ever.

The final idea from the Socialists is for using public procurement as a tool to fight social dumping, but it is unclear how they would go about to enhance the role public procurement already has in this space. As above, it seems unlikely they can go beyond what is already in the Public Contracts Code and therefore EU law as well.

Overall, this year's manifesto shows more ambition and I quite like the recognition that resources and capacity are a fundamental problem of public procurement in Portugal. As for the rest, my usual concerns and caveats apply.

Grade: 03/10