Sustainable Public Procurement: From Law to Practice

Javier Mendoza Jiménez,Montserrat Hernández López,Susana Eva Franco Escobar

doi:10.3390/su11226388

Javier Mendoza Jiménez, Montserrat Hernández López + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su11226388

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Abstract

This study aims to propose actions to improve the implementation of sustainable public procurement by identifying the problems perceived by public servants and social economy entities. Two types of questionnaires were sent to organizations in Spain and Europe and 217 complete answers were received (152 from the public sector and 65 from the social entities). In addition, 20 semi-structured personal interviews were conducted by phone with managers of social enterprises and four interviews, also by phone, were carried out with relevant people from the public sector. The results of the surveys and the interviews were structured using the analysis of the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT), which was considered consistent with the strategic nature of public procurement. The perceived opportunities for the public sector focus on more efficient use of public resources and improvement of reputation and social equality. For the social entities, more participation in procurement could lead to less dependency on public funds and more visibility. The obstacles for the public sector are related to lack of training and internal resistance to change, as well as, in the case of social entities, to their small size and the tensions with their social object that might derive from bigger competition. The proposed activities focus on two objectives, more training to increase knowledge from the public sector and the readiness of social entities. It is concluded that it is necessary to establish channels of communications between the two groups to avoid possible inefficiencies.

Highlights

The role of public procurement to foster sustainable development is gaining relevance both in academic research and in public policies [1]
A milestone for sustainable procurement was the case Gebroeders Beentjes VB vs. the Netherlands, where the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) validated the introduction of a clause for the employment of long-term unemployment persons in the frame of the contract. The sense of this clause was to give an opportunity for employment to the aforementioned collective. These conclusions were reinforced with the case Nord-pas-de-Calais vs. the Commission/France were a similar clause was declared compatible and the principles for the introduction of sustainable criteria were set by the CJEU establishing that the search for the most economic offer “does not preclude all possibility for the contracting authorities to use as a criterion a condition linked to the campaign against unemployment provided that that condition is consistent with all the fundamental principles of community law”
This role of public procurement for sustainable development is acknowledged in the Guidance on the participation of third country bidders and goods in the EU procurement market published in 2019 where the Commission links public procurement to the Global Development Objectives of the United Nations and determines that “socially responsible public procurement aims to have a social impact on communities by introducing social considerations in public procurement procedures

Summary

Introduction

The role of public procurement to foster sustainable development is gaining relevance both in academic research and in public policies [1]. Public bodies are being encouraged to procure sustainably, to reduce their social and environmental footprint, and to motivate sustainable practices in the private sector [2], academic research on the field is not yet sufficiently developed [3]. 151 to 161) of the TFEU allows the sanctioning of legal, reglementary, and administrative dispositions in order to harmonize social policies in the European Union. The Europe 2020 strategy defined public procurement as a strategy to support sustainable development, overcoming the traditional vision of being a simple expenditure of public funds to acquire the necessary (at least in theory) goods and services that the public sector needs to carry out its activities

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