Shifting the Culture of Public Procurement Can Help Improve Digital Public Services

Advancing digital public infrastructure (DPI) that strengthens the delivery of public services requires shifting the culture around how governments design, develop, and implement digital solutions. At the foundation of this work, is public procurement—a unique and often overlooked avenue for improving digital public services.

In 2021, over $60.6 billion was spent on state IT projects. Despite its potential for impact, public procurement is often plagued with institutionalized challenges and processes that are complex and opaque. Additionally, procurement specialists frequently prioritize compliance, resulting in an environment steeped in risk aversion. Competition barriers often lead to vendor lock-in and keep smaller, diverse firms from competing on a level playing field.

At Code for America’s annual summit (May 16 - 17), one panel featuring experts Afua Bruce (Author, The Tech That Comes Next), David Yarkin (Founder and CEO, Procurated), Kathrin Frauscher (Deputy Executive Director, Open Contracting Partnership), and Rohan Bhobe (Co-Founder and CEO, Nava Public Benefits Corporation) offered insight on how to use public procurement as a path toward more accessible and inclusive government digital solutions.

To reconceptualize public procurement, stakeholders need to collaborate to improve shared accountability, build mutual trust, and create better outcomes for public service delivery. In October 2022, DIGI worked with experts across the field to identify five core opportunity areas for change and highlighted personal narratives with advice on how to get there, including insight from some of the panelist organizations and experts.

Reflecting broader themes prevalent in the initiative to rethink public procurement and its possible impact, the Code for America panel presented three pieces of advice for those working in this field:

1. View procurement as part of the innovation process.

Rather than focusing primarily on risk-avoidance and compliance, public servants should integrate procurement into the innovation process. jurisdictions can adopt goal-oriented, modular contracting practices or performance-based contracts by fostering collaboration among various stakeholders. This approach allows for agile, iterative, and flexible solution development, placing emphasis on outcome-based solutions.

2. Start with the goal, then work toward the most effective solution, rather than prescribing a solution.

Jurisdictions can create an environment that encourages vendors to propose a variety of innovative solutions through request for proposals (RFP) that explicitly outlines objectives, success indicators, and potential failure points. This process can serve as a design exercise for vendors, enabling jurisdictions to select the proposal that most effectively aligns with their identified goals.

3. Center diversity, equity, inclusion, and access (DEIA) throughout procurement.

Delivering people-centered outcomes through civic solutions requires intentional DEIA practices. On the backend, this can include increasing RFP availability and access to new vendors—especially women- and minority-owned businesses. In addition, requiring human-centered design and community input can help ensure that those who will interact with a digital solution can do so effectively, easily, and safely.

Transforming the public procurement process is an essential component in strengthening government digital solutions and improving public service delivery outcomes. Changing the culture of public procurement requires concerted cross-sector collaboration and a commitment to always center the public’s needs.