Public procurement is not just a procedure: it's industrial policy, it's better service for citizens, and it's a lever for sustainability. The European Union places this activity at around 16% of GDP, a figure that indicates we are facing a lever with the potential to transform the country.

More than 70% of contracts for the Generalitat and the Catalan public sector, excluding emergency contracts, include social clauses. Last year, during which the ERC governed until May and the PSC governed from August, a total of 16,295 contracts were signed, for a value of €3.884 billion. Of these, 71.5% of the total and 76.5% of the overall economic volume allocated included a social clause. In absolute terms, this translates to 11,656 contracts with social measures for a value of €2.971 billion, "the highest figure ever recorded," according to data from the Ministry of Economy.

The Generalitat has approved a decree law to speed up the execution of public works and expand the access of small and medium-sized companies to contracts from the Catalan administration, as reported by the Government itself on Tuesday.

Two years after the beginning of the pandemic, the mistakes that were made in terms of public procurement are beginning to emerge. The public auditor has detected numerous formal irregularities in the over 200 contracts it has analysed (emergency and urgent tenders) that were made during those months. It has also found inconsistencies in the dates, services that were invoiced and never arrived and others that, on the other hand, were maintained over a longer period of time than the contract allowed.