Key facts
In 2020, the Federal Council approved the ‘Implementation strategy for the total revision of public procurement law for the 2021–2030 strategy period’. The purpose of this was, amongst other things, to strategically manage federal procurement across six focus areas.
The fifth focus area of the Federal Administration’s procurement strategy stipulates that procurement processes must be digitised, standardised and user-friendly. The nationwide digitisation and standardisation of processes i s being carried out by the Federal Office for Buildings and Logistics (FOBL) on two systems: SAP (value flows) and Acta Nova (document management). The harmonised procurement solution at federal level (HBB) was rolled out in the Federal Administration on Acta Nova in the spring of 2023. The SAP procurement and award management project (BVML) is still being implemented and is due to be introduced in October 2025. From then onwards, BVML and HBB should be used in conjunction with each other. In 2023, the Federal Administration procured services above the WTO threshold with a volume of CHF 6.39 billion.
The Swiss Federal Audit Office (SFAO) audited whether HBB was efficiently supporting the award process. The effect of HBB is difficult to assess. Firstly, because the original HBB project goals are only described in qualitative terms and there is no basis for comparison. Secondly, the use of HBB is a recommendation and is not used for the majority of procurements. This means that the desired standardisation of procurement processes across the entire Federal Administration is not guaranteed.
