Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of present generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
It is a national principle of governance in our Constitution and a public procurement principle in Article 10(2)(d) of the Constitution and in Section 3(i) of Public Procurement and Assets Disposal Act (PPADA, 2015).
At a historic UN Summit in September 2015, world leaders adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Globally, governments have progressively implemented various economic, social, legislative and other measures to achieve the SDGs, including laws and regulations on public procurement, considering that 10 SDGs are directly or indirectly induced and achieved through public and private procurement policies and spending accounting for 30 per cent to 60 per cent of their annual budgets.
Besides compliance with relevant laws on these goals, there is need for a broad-spectrum collaborative and innovative approach between public and private sectors. Kenya’s business sector has the ‘code of ethics for business’ where some 575 enterprises have so far committed to promote and enhance ethics of business conduct in line with the 10 principles of the UN Global Compact on human rights, labour standards, environment and anti-corruption.
Sustainable procurement is a conscious process where organisations meet their needs in a way that achieves value for money on a whole life basis by generating benefits to the spending organisations, society and economy, whilst minimising damage to the environment. Public procurement is a key economic activity of world governments, accounting for up to 25 per cent of their gross GDP globally.
As a major consumer of products made by private sector, the government, through the public procurement practitioners, should therefore take a SMART lead in promoting sustainable procurement to be emulated by private sector procurement.
This includes procuring products which are energy, fuel, water and resource efficient, substitutable, reusable, reparable, disposable, recyclable and biodegradable.
Production of such items should use environmentally-friendly chemicals and other substances to reduce or eliminate air, land and water pollution and waste. Wood products should be made from renewable forests. The government’s operations should substantially go paperless via automation to reduce printing, consumption of power and paper use.
Sustainable procurement goals can never be achieved with current fragmented and duplicative purchases in public sector. Concerted consolidation and standardisation of procurement portfolio is inevitable to make investment in research and production economically viable and secure a buy-in from suppliers.
Luckily, the Constitution, the PPADA, 2015, the 2020 Public Procurement Regulations and best practices already contain innovative guidelines like Procurement and Asset Disposal Services Agencies, Sector-specific Agencies, Consortium buying, and forward commitment procurement.
A SMART enforcement mechanism shall be necessary, including managing suppliers’ relationships, monitoring and evaluation, product content restrictions, eco-labelling, disclosure requirements, quality assurance certifications, compliance audits, awards and sanctions.
These should be clearly embedded as mandatory specifications and contractual requirements in bidding documents.
