The author recently joined a think tank focused on applying private company methodologies to public administration. They explained a key insight from a career spanning banking and other private sector roles: automating certain decision-making processes dramatically improves efficiency. This approach, gradually adopted in the public sector, centers on making small expenses more efficient, transparent, and sustainable through smarter management practices.
In banking, the attribution system dominates loan issuance and risk management for customers. Because the stakes are high, the operation’s validation is rigorous, filters multiply, and more documentation is required. The higher the amount, the more actors join the process — departments and specialists charged with valuation, oversight, auditing, monitoring, and generating positive reports for approval or renewal. Public procurement shows a strikingly similar pattern.
Historically, banking delegated smaller transactions to direct decisions by directors or branch managers to preserve agility, avoiding extra filters or escalations. Public administrations treat large and small expenditures similarly in terms of speed and legal authorization. A manager or technician can authorize certain expenses quickly when urgency demands, though the procedural landscape remains more layered in the public sector.
Over time, however, the parallel between banking and public administration evolves as procedures change. If the private sector moves toward digitization and automation, the public sector often remains burdened by bureaucracy and regulation, albeit with electronic workflows. When more reports, documents, and personnel are required, and when procurement laws are complex due to amendments, private entities can automate and simplify through technology, including system scoring and related innovations.
For more than a decade, the scoring system has been used across many private domains, especially banking. It aids professionals by automating decisions to approve or reject transactions, analyzing the customer and operation against a predefined set of criteria, and producing a recommendation that is then followed with justified exceptions.
Applied to public administration, particularly in small expenditures and contracts outside the formal public procurement process, a scoring model yields greater efficiency in supplier selection, enhanced transparency, and objective decision-making — especially for goods and services.
Examples exist in public administration such as the University of Murcia, which has promoted a scoring-based approach with the Clara app in petty cash contracts. This initiative, supported by a collaboration with the university, included a pilot called Suma Suppliers in 2018 and 2019. The tool simplifies the entire small-purchase workflow, reconciles supplier data, automates purchase requests, and notifies suppliers, technicians, and citizens in real time via email and mobile alerts.
Once offers are collected, scoring remains completely objective and automatic, ranking bids by relevance and recommending the most suitable option to the technician, manager, or administrator. The process repeats with well-justified exceptions when needed.
Variables that may enter automated scoring include price, prior quality and service history, or potential pending issues with the public administration. The goal goes beyond chasing the lowest price; it seeks the most advantageous and objective choice, speeding up procurement and minimizing human judgment where possible. The approach also respects norms within public sector contracting to reduce administrative errors.
After selecting the best offer for a small expense or contract, the system re-notifies all stakeholders, including suppliers, technicians, and citizens, of the outcome via email and in-app alerts. Public visibility is enhanced as the highest, lowest, and average prices become publicly traceable on a transparency portal and updated in real time for all to see.
The scoring model is likely the first step toward broader automation of public procurement, paving the way for smart contracts and the incorporation of disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotic process automation, big data, and perhaps even blockchain. The overarching aim remains simple: faster, more reliable, more transparent, and sustainable public management that benefits all parties involved.