Covid-19 measures in public procurements: Regulations for sustainable procurements

Abstract

Through its presence in Turkey as in all countries, the COVID-19 pandemic has made its impact felt in all areas of state administration, especially in the health sector. Public procurements are seen as an important tool of development and sustainability by the United Nations and have also been very important in this period, both in terms of procuring medical supplies as well as in ensuring developmental continuity. For this reason, governments have taken a series of measures to ensure that public procurement processes are managed efficiently and effectively under these economic conditions. The measures primarily relate to the types of tender and the procedures for ensuring sustainability in public procurement while also including financial measures. The main objective of the measures taken regarding public procurement is to ensure that procurements in extraordinary periods are made quickly to eliminate any potential grievances. For the process to function quickly and smoothly, new regulations have been made regarding tender and announcement periods, with several facilitating measures having been taken with regard to tender procedures. During the pandemic process, some countries have given administrations wide discretionary powers in managing measures related to public procurement, while others have given administrations limited discretionary powers and equipped them with more discretionary powers. In this process, the use of electronic tools has also increased significantly, and administrations and suppliers are observed to have taken a series of measures to encourage and facilitate the use of electronic tools. In addition, efforts have also been made to inform the public. Financial measures related to public procurement were mostly aimed at meeting the extraordinary resource needs of contracting authorities, while suppliers aimed to improve their financial situations that had deteriorated due to the pandemic measures. Inferences have been made regarding the measures taken for public procurement during the pandemic by analyzing various countries, in particular Turkey and the European Union.