Some Public Procurement Challenges in Supporting and Delivering Smart Urban Mobility: Procurement Data, Discretion and Expertise

Abstract

This paper explores three of the challenges that public buyers face when designing public tenders to support the delivery of smart urban mobility initiatives and when supervising the execution of the relevant contracts. First, the paper covers emerging issues around access and reuse of transport data that may be hindering ‘out of the box’ thinking and the deployment of artificial intelligence in this area. Second, the paper also discusses some well-known issues ‘within the regulatory box’ around the exercise of discretion in the choice of sustainable technical solutions, the constraints surrounding certain types of complex and collaborative procurement and the difficulties in monitoring contract compliance clauses. Third, the paper arrives at the realisation that the main challenges in delivering and supporting smart urban mobility through procurement relate to the higher-level or cross-cutting challenge of the professionalisation of the procurement workforce and the need to bridge significant (and growing) knowledge gaps, and thus explores existing policy interventions aimed at the professionalisation and networking of procurement officials. The paper concludes with some overall reflections and a call for a more active role by the new Von der Leyen Commission.