Centralisering af offentlige indkøb

Abstrakt

For many years the public sector has decentralized both finances and competence to decide both vertically in the organisation and to the local institutions. However throughout recent years an increasing focus on the public sector’s procurement polices and strategies has been pulling in the opposite direction i.e. towards centralization. This tendency is mainly caused by the fact the procurement has been chosen as one of the focus areas with an important potential when it comes to rationalising and consequently contribute to the financing of the future Welfare State. In this thesis we have analysis the issues revolving around power, legitimacy, meaning- and government technologies. We are especially interested in how public procurement strategies and policies will create legitimacy for the major actors in public procurement market (such as Kommunernes Landsforening (KL) as interest organisation, Staten og Kommunernes Indkøbsservice (SKI), Statens Indkøbssekretariat (SI)); how power influences the interaction amongst the actors; how the introduction of the joint municipal procurement strategy gives meaning and how the relations amongst the major actors may constitute the public procurement. The main questions of the thesis are: 1. Which kind of power and legitimacy are at stake in and between public actors when it comes to centralizing of and rationalizing of the public procurement. 2. If the joint municipal purchase strategy expresses a special kind of communication? 3. How meaning and expectations are created and gathered in concepts in the joint municipal procurement strategy? 4. How the shift of paradigm from decentralization to centralization creates and limits the performance of public procurement? The first analysis is an analysis of power based on the theories of power by Christensen and Daugaard Jensen. We relate to how the selected actors seek influence on the public procurement and strategies of such or are influenced by other actors, who hereby made use of their power. As empiric foundation for our legitimacy analysis we shall make use of our joint empery and review the relevant expression for legitimacy strategy in Suchman’s understanding. The theoretical analysis is based on Luhmann’s theory and analyses the paradoxes the joint municipal purchase strategy as communication creates when it comes to the differences between government/self-government. More over a semantic analysis is carried out examining how meaning is condensed in concepts in the joint municipal procurement strategy. The last analysis carried out is a governmental technological analysis examining the public procurement strategies and policies as a social governmental technology. This analysis is inspired by Henrik Frimor’s technology theory, however we have chosen to take basis in the above mentioned three analysis in the way we make use of the concepts. Therefore the governmental technological analyses to a great extend stands out as a gathering of the results of the thesis. Our analysis shows that: There is a great deal of power at stake between the different actors in the market and the conclusion to our analysis can be stated in the following quote from Søren Jakobsen ”If one as an interest in procurement –then procurement is power.” There is a lot of legitimacy at stake and the legitimacy is an essential factor in relation to the preparation of strategies in SKI, KL, SI and the individual municipals. We also see how legitimacy is important as nourishment for different organisation as contributes to and removes the organisational latitude. KL through the joint municipal purchasing strategy observe based on the distinction between government/self-government. This distinction is a paradox due to the fact that it is not possible, however in the joint municipal purchasing strategy government of the self-governmental (municipals) is introduced exactly as non-governmental, as the government is hidden behind necessities. The latitude for public procurement is both limited and created by concepts as power, legitimacy, management distinction and meaning.