With the end of the year approaching, it is good to stop for a moment, turn back and summarize everything that we have managed to achieve during all these days. As part of the Responsible Public Procurement project, we constantly tried to meet our internal and project goals during 2021.

During 2021, we created several promotional materials within the project. Among the most prominent are:

Analysis mapping the state of use of MEAT criteria in Slovakia entitled "Strengthening value for money in the public procurement system in the Slovak Republic"
We have created a regular section of the project website - Interviews with experts, in which public procurement experts share their experiences, advice and ideas regarding the application of MEAT criteria and the use of preparatory market consultations.
In addition, we have regularly published interesting articles on the web on the topics of the MEAT criteria
We also regularly published all outputs and articles on the project Instagram
In the second half of the year, we also launched the official profile of the Responsible Public Procurement project on the social network Facebook, so that we could be closer to a wider range of people, experts, but also laymen who are interested in these topics.
Last but not least, we organized an introductory training: Basics of MEAT criteria for beginners
Finally, it is necessary to mention very stimulating meetings with our colleagues from the OECD, but especially that which took place in the presence of a representative of the Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic, specifically with the Director of Public Procurement, Mr. Ondrej Kurec.
The first mentioned, of many planned trainings, took place on 15.12.2021 and focused mainly on presenting the results of the analysis, the basic information you need to know about the MEAT criteria, as well as on preparatory market consultations together with an explanation of the formulas. Part of the training was also devoted to practical examples. 30 participants registered for the introductory training. The training capacity was filled in an incredible 23 hours 45 minutes and 43 seconds, with 20% of applicants having 0-2 years of experience in public procurement, 20% 3-5 years of experience and 60% of respondents saying they had 5 or more years of experience.

But when summarizing, it is good to look to the future and set new goals based on what has been done, something like New Year's resolutions, and these are ours for 2022:

We plan to fully launch the training process and prepare trainings for intermediate and most experienced contracting authorities, also divided by size, key position in relation to the volume of procured contracts or their focus on key procurers, medium procurers and small procurers.
At the beginning of the year, we will publish a Strategy to support the use of MEAT criteria in Slovakia on the project website, in which we will specify the goals and plans within the project implementation.
In cooperation with the project partner - OECD, it is planned to issue 2 methodologies, the content of which will relate to the MEAT criteria, their benefits, basic principles in their use, etc.
We will also publish short documents containing examples of good practice, mainly from the Slovak public procurement environment, but also from abroad.
Finally, a large international workshop will be organized in the second half of 2022 with experts from different countries who are experts in the field of MEAT criteria, in order to share their many years of experience with you.
We thank you all for your support in fulfilling the project goals and for your cooperation, positive response and enthusiastic reactions to our work. We are very much looking forward to what the year 2022 will bring us, and in the end we would also like to wish you a beautiful and happy Christmas holidays in the circle of the next and a successful entry into the new year 2022.