Contract award procedures and award criteria in the catering services in Finland

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore what kinds of contract award procedures and award criteria are followed when the municipalities make public procurements in catering services in Finland.Design/methodology/approach – The literary review is related to the concepts of public procurements and, subsequently, interrelated regulations are introduced. Moreover, the municipal catering services are illustrated. Empirical data were collected in the spring of 2009 from the Finnish public procurement journal and from HILMA internet websites concerning the contract notices and the contract award notices between 1 January 2007 and 14 May 2009. The objects of the contract, thresholds, contract award procedures, sectors of contract awards, as well as both the selection and the award criteria were analysed in the contract notices. A total of 34 contract notices were discovered, out of which 24 could be utilised.Findings – The contract award procedures could be divided into either open procedures or restric...