The Hessian state government wants to significantly relax the obligation to tender for the award of public contracts. Economics Minister Kaweh Mansoori (SPD) announced on Wednesday that in the future, deliveries and services up to 100,000 euros and construction work up to 750,000 euros could be commissioned directly without a procurement process. Previously, the limit was uniformly 10,000 euros. This gives municipalities and state authorities more flexibility and the freedom to get projects started more quickly and easily, said the minister. The new procurement exemption limits are “unique in a nationwide comparison” with regard to construction work, Mansoori stated. In the future, Hesse, together with Bavaria and Brandenburg, will take the top position in delivery and services. Those who pay decently should benefit. In addition, adherence to collective agreements should be strengthened. There is already a requirement in Hesse to award public contracts to companies that pay standard wages. In the future, however, concrete evidence will be required for this, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said. The requirement to clarify this question for each individual order should be eliminated: an upstream “tariff prequalification process” will be introduced for construction services, which companies will then only have to go through every three years. According to Mansoori’s plans, the obligation to comply with collective agreements must be taken into account for orders with a volume of 20,000 euros or more. In the case of the “suitability pre-qualification process”, the term is also extended to three years. In the future, companies should be able to acquire both certificates at the same time. The newly introduced best bidder principle, in which only the best bidder has to prove that the information in his offer is correct, makes a number of other bureaucratic obligations unnecessary. “We consciously rely on trust in the companies. Anyone who pays according to the tariff should be able to get their chance easily. This relieves the burden on public clients and creates fair competitive conditions,” explained Mansoori to achieve a realistic market price. The clients themselves have an interest in this because they want to operate economically, says Mansoori. However, submitting such offers is nowhere near as complex as participating in tenders. The Ministry of Economics wants to make it more difficult to conceal fraud: subcontractors should be monitored more intensively than before, it is said. Praise from the social partners Mansoori’s claim that he has presented by far the most progressive concept in Germany with the amendment to the Public Procurement and Collective Bargaining Act was expressly adopted by the representatives of the social partners in construction. Burkhard Siebert, general manager of the Hesse-Thuringia Construction Industry Association, spoke of a “quantum leap forward”. The fact that construction work worth up to 750,000 euros could be commissioned directly without a procurement process is a courageous but also justifiable step. The risk that this freedom will be abused is manageable because the clients have their own interest in fair market prices. Siebert praised the early involvement of the social partners in the development of the concept. Above all, it will strengthen those companies that offer fair working conditions. “Wage dumping will therefore come to an end in Hesse.” The Construction-Agrar-Environment industrial union also sees the reform as an important step. “The whole thing is great,” said Hans-Joachim Rosenbaum, regional manager of the union in Hesse. “Fair work needs clear rules.” With the reform, collective agreement compliance will become more binding and controllable. Employees and reputable companies benefited equally from this. Mansoori spoke of a signal of departure in difficult times. Urgent investments in the districts, cities and municipalities should be simplified and accelerated so that the promised funds from the special fund reach the people quickly. FDP complains about new bureaucracy. The promised increase in the awarding exemption limits for public contracts is “long overdue,” said Stefan Naas. FDP parliamentary group leader in the state parliament. Liberal proposals have been on the table for a long time. The higher limits were intended to simplify and speed up awards. However, these simplifications would be counteracted by the bureaucratic social democratic approach of wanting to pursue wage policy at the same time as regulating awards. Collective bargaining issues are a matter for employers and unions, but not for the state government. The fact that a new control group is now being set up in the Ministry of Economic Affairs is “the opposite of the reduction in bureaucracy promised by the state government”.
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