Santo Domingo.-President Luis Abinader presented this Wednesday the Green Public Procurement policy, with the purpose that the acquisitions of goods, works and services by the Government generate less negative impact on the environment and promote efficient use of resources.
The president explained that the coordination of the initiatives for the application of the policy is the responsibility of the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources and the General Directorate of Public Contracts (DGCP) which, from now on, must promote that the public institutions subject to the scope of application of Law 340-06 on Public Procurement adopt responsible consumption practices with the environment and measures that favor efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability in all phases of the purchasing cycle in the procedures carried out by the State.
During the presentation of the policy, the Minister of the Environment, Miguel Ceara Hatton, stated that, with the implementation of this policy, the institutions of the Cabinet for Sustainable and Inclusive Purchasing, and the Dominican Government assume part of their share of responsibility before the climatic, environmental and waste generation situation in the Dominican Republic, proposing to influence the change in the culture of consumption progressively.
“With the support of all of you, we are going for more, for a more sustainable government, for a more conscious society, for a more inclusive development, for more environmental education, for more efficiency in the use of public resources, for more innovation, for more responsible production and consumption, for more access to public services, for more improvement in people’s quality of life, for more harmony with the environment and for more sustainability,” said Minister Ceara Hatton.
Meanwhile, the General Director of Public Procurement, Carlos Pimentel Florenzán, insisted on the need to specify the regulations and behavior of the State as a responsible client and consumer.
“In short, this policy is a concrete way in which the Dominican State can fulfill its responsibility, not only with a healthy environment, but also with a new culture of sustainable production and consumption that reduces the negative environmental externalities of goods, services and works that it hires”, Pimentel specified.
With this initiative, the result of an action plan implemented with the support of the European Union, the Government seeks that the contracting processes achieve the integral development of the nation, the protection and sustainable use of the environment embodied in the National Development Strategy (END) and in the General Environmental Law, with a view to meeting the goals established in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
The transversal principles of green purchases include value for money, which promotes the effective, efficient and economic use of resources allocated to public procurement, which requires the evaluation of costs, quality and sustainability of the offer.
Likewise, sustainable consumption and production, justified need, environmental responsibility, quality of spending, advertising, transparency and free competition.
For the application of the policy, the General Directorate of Public Procurement and the Ministry of the Environment will provide a list of prioritized goods and their respective technical sheets with minimum parameters, to contribute to the preparation of technical specifications related to the criteria of environmental sustainability.
With this, we want to achieve that in the stage of preparing their Annual Public Procurement and Contracting Plans (PACC) and in their Annual Operating Plans (POA), the institutions identify the processes to be contracted with sustainability criteria.
Policy Origin
On October 24, President Luis Abinader declared the promotion of sustainable and inclusive public procurement to be of national interest through decree 617-22 for the acquisition of goods, works and services by State institutions, which generate less impact on the environment and maximize socioeconomic impacts.
To enable the progressive incorporation of best practices, management tools and the promotion of sustainable public procurement in the National System of Public Procurement and Contracting (SNCCP), the Cabinet for Sustainable and Inclusive Public Procurement was created, coordinated by the DGCP and made up of the Ministries of the Environment and Natural Resources, of the Economy, Planning and Development, of the Presidency and of Industry, Commerce and MSMEs.
