www.marches-publics.gouv.fr : the French e-procurement platform

Marches-publics.gouv.fr is a service enabling the administration, to publish their calls for tender and companies to answer on-line. It answers the regulatory obligation of the public contracts code (art.56) which establishes that a public entity cannot refuse, within the framework of the formalised procedures, the sending of the electronic answers by companies since 1 January 2005. _ it also fits into the recommendations of the European directives.

Main results, benefits and impacts

The implementation of a platform gathering the notices of all the State services, constituting a single point of access to the contracts of the State and proposing research and warning tools, will ensure better information of the companies about public contracts. Moreover, the possibility of downloading the specifications (DCE) of a contract allows substantial time savings: it facilitates the identification by the companies of the contracts which can potentially interest them and leaves them more latitude to draw up tenders. Companies can use as from today a secure means of response to the contracts issued by the State: in addition to traceability and transparency, the use of the platform makes it possible to make substantial economies on the stamping or delivery costs and to have more time for the constitution of the tenders. Finaly, in order to facilitate recourse to the dematerialization of the tenders by the companies, teaching, training, assistance and accompaniment activities will be led in the course of 2005 and a process of homogenisation of the ergonomics of the various dematerialisation platforms will be initiated.

Return on investment

Return on investment: Not applicable / Not available

Lessons learnt

The adoption of a favourable environment to the dematerialization of public contracts was carried out via several actions. A detailed study on the legal framework of the dematerialization of public contracts and the means of its effective implementation by the contracting authorities, leading to a concrete expression by the drafting of a regulatory Vade-mecum published by the direction of legal issues of the Ministry of Economics, finance and industry. This document clarifies the access and response methods to public contracts. The setting up of a platform gathering the notices of all the State services, with research and warning tools, facilitates companies in gathering information on public contracts. The dematerialization of the procedures provides traceability of the various documents exchanged between the tenderers and the contracting authority. Dematerialization of the public contracts also made it possible to reconsider the practices of the State employees and thus to manage the simplification of the procedures for the awarding of contracts. Lastly, the initiating of a process of certification of public contracts dematerialization platforms has to create the confidence necessary for their extensive use by the companies. This process is intended to be extended at the European level. Scope: National