The EU started procurement later than the UK and the US, and when severe supply shortfalls occurred in the first half of 2021, it became clear that most contracts signed by the EU Commission did not include specific provisions to address supply disruptions, according to a overview released this month by the European Court of Auditors (ECA).
The EU’s negotiators did not fully analyse the production and supply chain challenges of vaccine production until after signing most of the contracts, concluded the auditors.
Procurement conditions were tightened, though, in the later contracts with vaccine manufacturers. Those signed in 2021 had stronger provisions on key issues such as delivery schedules and production location than those signed in 2020, found the audit.
But the ECA team also identified as troublesome the fact that netiher the Commission’s nor the Council’s review of the COVID-19 pandemic examined the performance of the vaccine procurement process, beyond its overall outcome.
Recommendations
The auditors highly recommend that the EU executive create pandemic procurement guidelines on the basis of lessons learnt.
They also suggest that the Commission carries out stress tests, running exercises to evaluate all parts of its updated pandemic procurement strategy and framework, including information and intelligence gathering, to identify any weaknesses and areas for improvement and publish the results.
In a published response to the ECA document, the Commission said it has accepted the auditors’ recommenations.