# Sustainable Public Procurement in Central European Countries. Can It Also Bring Savings?
## 3 Results  
The first finding that can be drawn from the data is that the average savings according to the procurement type are 6.79% in the case of non-SPP MEAT and 8.6% in the case of SPP-oriented MEAT. The distribution of savings is shown in Figure 1. The savings in the case of non-sustainable MEAT follow a somewhat normal distribution, with the majority of cases concentrated around zero as the average. On the other hand, in the case of sustainable-oriented MEAT, the distribution has two peaks, and the substantial part of savings is concentrated between 25% and 50% savings, as shown in Figure 1.  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline
**Variable** & **Wald Chi-Square** & **df** & **Sig.** \\ \hline (Intercept) & 17.535 & 1 & \(<\)0.001 \\ Type of contract & 111.330 & 2 & \(<\)0.001 \\ Frame agreement & 138.049 & 1 & \(<\)0.001 \\ EU Funds & 16.450 & 1 & \(<\)0.001 \\ Type of procurement & 14.110 & 1 & 0.004 \\ Group of suppliers & 16.079 & 1 & \(<\)0.001 \\ Number of offers & 135.421 & 1 & \(<\)0.001 \\ Number of offers by SMEs & 17.581 & 1 & \(<\)0.001 \\ SPP MEAT & 3.968 & 1 & 0.046 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} Dependent variable: saving. Model: (Intercept), type of contract, framework agreement, EU funds, type of procurement, group of suppliers, number of offers, number of offers by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), SPP MEAT. Source: Authors.  
\end{table}
Table 3: Test of Model Effects.  
The average savings by SPP type are shown in Figure 2. It is evident that the savings reached in the SPP MEAT, which belong to the social aspect group, are significantly higher than the other ones. There are medium savings gained by the non-sustainable MEATs and MEATs covering environmental aspects. Finally, there are low savings gained in the group of the mixed aspects as well as the innovations and economic sustainability group.  
The regression results are shown in Table 4. The first statistically significant explanatory variable is the type of contract. In the case of services, the savings are significantly higher than in the case of works. The coefficient for utilities was not found to be statistically significant. Secondly, in the case that there is no framework agreement within the public procurement, the savings are 10.5% higher than in the case of a framework agreement. If the subject of the procurement is not financed from EU funds, the savings are 4.7% higher in comparison to the cases funded from EU funds. In terms of the type of procurement, the study distinguishes between the open type of procurement and other non-open types of procurement. The current findings suggest that in cases where the open type of procurement is used, the savings are smaller than otherwise. In other words, if a non-open type of procurement is used, the savings are 15.732% higher than compared to an open type of procurement. There were slightly higher savings, by 4.5%, reported in cases where a contract was awarded to a single supplier rather than a group of suppliers. The higher the number of offers, the higher the competition  
Figure 1: Savings—SPP vs. non SPP. **(a)** non SPP MEAT, **(b)** SPP MEAT.  
Figure 2: Average Savings by SPP Group.  
is among competitors and thus higher savings are achieved. An increase in the number of offers by one induces an increase of savings by 3.2%. Moreover, the higher the number of offers made by SMEs, the higher the savings are (by 2%). If contracting authorities use criteria not focused on sustainable public procurement, the savings are 0.4% higher in comparison to the use of criteria focused on sustainable public procurement policy. This finding is somewhat in contrast with the fact that the average saving is 6.79% in the case of non-SPP MEAT and 8.6% in the case of SPP-oriented MEAT. This can be caused by fact that the difference in between average savings is not distinctive and the average value in the case of SPP is affected by high savings achieved in the case of SPP MEAT social aspects.