Federal Ministry of Economy and Energy (BMWi): The main central authority that is in charge of the public procurement system. Its tasks:

• to decide on the principles of public procurement
• to draft primary legislation.

Federal States Committee on public procurement ensures regular cooperation with the Federal States in order to share the latest aspects of the procurement policy and practice.

Public Procurement Committees serve as a forum for stakeholders from the federal level, federal state level and local administration level, as well as for public-private organisations and private entities. They participate in drafting procurement rules.

German Committee for Supplies and Services Tendering and Contract Regulations (DVAL) participates in the development of procurement rules for supplies and services.

German Committee for Construction Tendering and Contract Regulations (DVA) works on the procurement rules for public works.

At the federal level there are four central contracting authorities between which the responsibilities are shared based on the thematic content:

• the Federal Financial Directorate Southwest (BFD Südwest) implements procurements for the tax administration
• the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing issues framework agreements for groups of specific technical products
• the Federal Office for Equipment, IT technology and Use of the German Armed Forces procures mainly for the German military
• the Central Purchasing Body of the Ministry of Interior is the main body among the central purchasing/contracting bodies, as it procures for all federal agencies and manages the main e-procurement platform including the provision of the supportive functions.

There are central purchasing bodies on a regional level as well.

The oversight system of public procurement processes is linked to the EU threshold

• Above the thresholds, the procurements are controlled by procurement review chambers that are in charge of the first instance reviews. Each federal State has its own procurement review chamber, and there is a central review organisation within the Federal Competition Authority (Federal Procurement Review Chamber).Appeals against the decisions of the review chambers can be submitted to the specialised procurement senates in the respective Higher Regional Courts.
• In case of procurements below the EU thresholds, most of the federal states have founded review bodies called VOB or VOL Offices.The supervision of the public procurement procedures is carried out by the Audit Courts of the German Federal States and by the Federal Court of Auditors in terms of cost-effectiveness and compliance.The planning period is a fiscal year and not a school year.

  The different steps are:

• Members of teachers’ conference for specified subject submit their requirements to the school principal
• Principle decides whether to submit a request for procurement to school authorities (this decision is based on the budget as well)
• School principal submits a request for ICT solutions to school authorities
• If school authority confirms the funding, three more steps can be implemented:
  • If the procurement costs over 1000 EUR, the school authority manages the procurement process
  • If the procurement costs between 500 EUR and 1000 EUR, the schools can procure the solution itself, but it needs to get three offers for tenders
  • If the procurement costs below 500 EUR, the school can procure the solution on its own and the three offers are not needed
• The invoices are always managed by the school authority.

School authorities can define their own way of a procurement process that can differ from the one described above. The school authorities have the right to determine own procurement costs as well. Schools were not given the right to decide, which educational technology tool to purchase. This right is exercised by the school owner.

The role of the teachers in the procurement process is very restricted as they can make the request which solution to be purchased, but they cannot take part in the decision making.

There is a dedicated budget for educational technology procurements financed from national grants.