Chapter 2

CEIS Health Report 2006
tract system remained at the same level as the previous year.
Chart 1 depicts the general trends of covered expenditure, potential savings and expenditure
generated through the framework contract system, from the starting of the Program through to
the end of 2005.
In 2005 the total value of covered expenditure reached € 13,7 billion, far more over the forecasted
value of € 12,5 billion, with an average unit cost reduction corresponding to 16,7%.
Issued orders registered a constant growth trend that confirms the results achieved from the
beginning of the Program to this day, despite the Program’s scarce activity registered in 2004
(due to the publication of DPCM n. 325 only at the end of the year). 2005 NHS covered expenditure
reached € 6.288 million. In the course of the year, two new significant health expenditure
initiatives were implemented, one on “adult incontinence” and the other on “integrated
management of electro-medical instruments”.
Particular attention needs the NHS Administrations’ participation in the Program on the
Rationalization of Public Spending, in terms of volume of orders issued through the framework
contract system. In fact, the contracts generated expenditure corresponds in 2005 to € 185
million (vis à vis a total generated expenditure of € 945 million). This result is significantly greater
than that of 2004. As already mentioned the year 2004 was characterized by the suspension
of new tenders (waiting for the publication of DPCM n. 325) and the gradual expiry of the
framework contracts available. On the opposite, 2005 was focused on the launching of new
tenders, and relaunching of the entire framework contract system, that took the better part of
the year. Thus goods and services were available only during the second half of the year.
Moreover, through the year several activities were carried out aimed at ensuring the abidance
with the procedural transparency and accessibility criteria of the Program, in addition to the
strengthening of cooperation with the watchdog and control Authorities in order to ensure full
compliance with market regulations.
9 The term covered expenditure refers to the annual expenditure related to the goods and services that are object of the framework
contracts that have been implemented. A single category of goods/services may be object of more than one framework agreement,
providing cover of the range offered through different tender modalities and timing.
10 The unit cost percentage reduction amounts to the average discount obtained, at the end of the tender procedure, also in relation
to average inflation and to prices currently paid by Administrations for goods and services that are comparable to those object of
the framework contract, both in terms of quality and supplier service levels. A statistical study, carried out in cooperation with
the MEF, ISTAT (National Institute on Statistics) and Consip has produced an accurate identification of average prices
paid by the PA for some product categories, highlighting the accuracy of the values that had been estimated in terms
of potential savings. The total potential savings figures take into account also the benchmark effect for those PA that
have bought through the framework contract system and thus must refer to the contracts’ price and quality parameters
when acquiring comparable goods.
11 By framework contract-generated expense, referring to a specific active contract, one may be referring to one of the following:
• cost of ordered goods/services;
• order value for those framework contracts that deal with rentals and leasing;
• traffic value handled through the framework contract (e.g. in the case of fixed-line telephone services).
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