Swiss Federal Audit Office SFAO

Good ICT procurement commences with requirements.

Effective ICT requirements management in the Confederation is extremely important as a prerequisite for cost-effective and sustainable ICT procurement. The Confederation-wide ICT requirements and specifications have been a federal standard since 1 December 2014. This instrument is still being developed in organisational and operational terms. The FITSU's efforts to strengthen requirements management are to be supported.

The role of the procurement strategy body is to be developed.

Under the Ordinance on the Organisation of Federal Public Procurement, the Federal Procurement Conference (FPC) is the Federal Administration 's strategy body for the procurement of goods and services, particularly in the area of ICT procurement, and is managed by the FOBL. Overall management or steering of procurement activities, together with the necessary authority to issue directives, has not been effectively established as yet. Consistent lead buyer-oriented product group responsibility is to be sought or built up instead of delegations of authority from the FOBL. Procurement strategies should be set out and implemented for relevant product groups.

A new article in the PPA / PPO should improve investment protection and support competition.

The current ICT procurement trend shows that the legal certainty sought with WTO procedures is often at the expense of economic efficiency. Particularly when procuring software, this practice leads to some high migration costs and to the depreciation of earlier investments, thereby eliminating the purchasing successes and bundling effects achieved. This deficiency with regard to replacements (re-procurements) should be eliminated with an investment protection article, requiring mandatory contractual clauses such as inspection, benchmark, renegotiation and withdrawal rights. The initial procurement should still have to be carried out via a compliant procurement procedure like before.

Procurement controlling at shorter intervals for more steering possibilities.

The federal payment statistics published annually are submitted to the Federal Council with rec-ommended measures for approval. The instrument for informing the Federal Council is in itself a good one. Systematic bypassing can be detected with the reporting. Accordingly, overarching steering measures can be taken. However, the annual publication cycle means that the instrument has little impact and is not suitable as a steering or procurement controlling instrument. The annual publication cycle should be shortened to a quarterly one. System-based and reproducible monthly analysability should be targeted.