What is the Procurement Statistics Regulation?
The Procurement Statistics Regulation (VergStatVO) governs the systematic collection and analysis of statistical data on public contract awards in Germany. Introduced in 2020, it serves transparency and the development of the procurement system.
Purpose
Until the VergStatVO's introduction, Germany lacked a comprehensive data foundation on public procurement. The regulation creates the basis for:
- Transparency: First systematic recording of all public contract awards
- Evaluation: Assessing the effectiveness of procurement regulations
- Policy steering: Data-based decisions for developing procurement law
- EU reporting: Fulfilling statistical reporting obligations to the EU Commission
Reporting Obligations
Contracting authorities must report data including contract type and subject (CPV codes), contract value and procedure type, number of bids received, information on the awardee (SME status, country of origin), and use of sustainability and innovation criteria.
Data Collection
Data is collected at two levels:
- Above EU thresholds: Data is automatically extracted from EU notice forms
- Below EU thresholds: Authorities report data via a federal portal
Market Significance
The VergStatVO provides the first reliable figures on the total volume of public contracts, SME participation, use of sustainable procurement criteria, and regional differences in procurement practice.