CircPro project partner University of Turin promotes the professionalization of contracting authorities, as well as the incorporation of circular economy principles in procurement sector, through a wide array of education, research and training activities and projects. On May 8th, 2020 the University launched via webinar the 5th edition of the Master’s degree on “Strategies for Efficiency, Integrity and Innovation in Public Contracts”.
The Master program (www.masterseiic.it), organised in cooperation with the Italian Anticorruption Authority (www.anticorruzione.it), aims to enhance the professionalism of procurement officers from public sector and suppliers’ side by providing them legal and economic skills to improve their capabilities to manage the entire public procurement cycle and to operate in organised network taking into account efficiency, integrity, innovation and sustainability criteria. The teaching activities are realised through a combination of online and face-to-face training including the analysis of practical procurement cases. The course targets managers and public officers of Public Administrations, in particular contracting authorities from unions of municipalities to the Ministry of Defence. Participation is also open to managers and executives of private companies operating in the field of public procurement.
The Master promotes the relevance of the correct and strategic use of contractual tools (as framework agreements, dynamic purchasing systems, e-Procurement) and organisational models (cooperative purchasing, joint procurement and central purchasing bodies activity) provided by EU Directives on public contracts to pursue public needs.
During the event the speakers gathered in videoconference, including the Master’s coordinator Prof. Gabriella Racca and the President of the Italian National anti-corruption authority, Francesco Merloni, as well as professors of administrative law such as Roberto Cavallo Perin, Mario Chiti, Bernardo Mattarella and Alberto Zito proposed the development of a public “Amazon-style” system that manages procurement and in particular the supply of goods for local authorities and public administrations, avoiding distortions and misconduct experienced even during the coronavirus emergency. The basic principle is to extend and to improve the methods already adopted with the Central purchasing body of the Italian public administration (Consip Spa) and to rapidly develop the digitization of procurement.
The topics covered and the multidisciplinary approach used allowed the Master program to become the core of the competence center realised by the University of Turin in the field of innovation and sustainable public contracts as part of the PPI2Innovate Interreg Central Europe project. The competence center is aimed to support contracting authorities and it cooperates with several national and local administration as well as with International procurement experts and researchers from Europe and beyond.
For instance, a noteworthy initiative on innovation procurement has recently been held on the topic “Recovering from the Pandemic: European Initiatives, U.S. Perspectives”. The webinar, jointly moderated by Prof. C. Yukins of George Washington University Law School and Prof. G.M. Racca of University of Turin, has been held on May 14th, 2020 gathering representatives from European Commission services (Lucian Cernat, EC Chief Trade Economist; Bertrand Wert, Innovation Maker for the European Innovation Council; Jekaterina Novikova, Innovation Policy Coordinator at DG Research and Innovation; Ivo Locatelli, senior expert in innovation procurement at DG GROW), consultancy companies, researchers, UN and US agencies. The discussion covered the European Union initiatives concerning joint procurement and funding innovation to drive the recovery in response to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as U.S. and transnational perspectives. The full recording of the event is available on YouTube ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRSN9IGCpJU ).
Finally, and in synergy with the activities of CircPro project, the know-how of the competence centre is currently being mobilised for the development of supporting material for the regional decision-makers, procurers and suppliers on circular procurement procedures and practices, including CircPro regional guidebook and policy briefs to increase the knowledge of territorial stakeholders in circular procurement principles and criteria.
Photos:
Top of the page: Conference of 1st October 2019 on the Italian Anticorruption Authority and the University of Turin for new models of smart public administration (organized during the past edition of the Master)
Below: Student of the previous edition of the Master Program (fourth edition, year 2019/2020)
