Overall procurement strategy for Askøy municipality

The purpose of the procurement regulations is to promote efficient use of society's resources.

Purpose

The purpose of the procurement regulations is to promote the efficient use of society's resources. The regulations must also help ensure that the public sector acts with integrity, so that the public has confidence that public procurement takes place in a way that serves society. 

The procurement strategy is an overarching strategy that applies to all areas in Askøy municipality. The strategy has the following objectives:

• Contribute to Askøy municipality safeguarding and complying with the purposes and provisions of the procurement regulations
• Procurement must be carried out in such a way that the municipality achieves the best ratio between price and quality
• Enter route choices and directions for all the municipality's purchases 
• Make visible the strategic importance of acquisitions that contribute to ensuring social, economic and environmental sustainability (cf. the UN's sustainability goals) 
• Support plans, strategies and guidelines that apply to the municipality's service areas and administration 

The procurement strategy must be public and accessible to all stakeholders.

The procurement strategy applies from the time it is adopted by the municipal council.

Main goals and focus areas

One main goal, four focus areas and sub-goals that are connected to the main goal and the focus areas have been defined. The sub-goals appear in a separate action plan (appendix 1). The sub-goals are followed up by concrete measures to ensure implementation. These also emerge from the action plan.

Main goals:

The municipality's procurement must contribute to trust, innovative thinking, good financial management and efficient use of resources. Measures that prevent social dumping and workplace crime, promote ethical trade, climate and environmental considerations, must be emphasised.

Focus areas:

1. Quality and competence

2. Organization and control

3. Social responsibility

4. Climate and environment

Focus area 1: Quality and competence

Procurement processes must be carried out in line with current regulations, and must observe the following overarching principles:

• Use the room for action that the regulations open up
• Professionalism
• Loyalty
• Good business practice
• High ethical standard
• Plain language 

The municipality must have specialist expertise and dedicated resources in the field of public procurement, and clear rules and procedures in the area. Competence development takes place by key people keeping professionally up-to-date, participating in networks and collaboration, as well as continuous learning and improvement.

Focus area 2: Organization and control

The procurement area must be organized in a way that ensures efficient processes with clear lines of responsibility and good control at all stages. 

Organization:

• The municipal director is responsible for all procurement activity in the municipality. 
• Managers and key personnel must have a conscious relationship with how the procurement work is organized in the municipality, and where responsibility is placed. 
• The manager is responsible for notifying the purchasing function of the need for new agreements or changes to existing agreements
• The manager must familiarize himself with the purchase agreements entered into and help ensure that these are followed.
• The manager must be aware of what it means to be an agreement manager and decide who will have this role in their own unit.

Control:

• The person responsible for carrying out the procurement must follow procedures and routines for procurement processes, contract and contractor selection and clarify contract follow-up. These must be found in the municipality's internal quality system.
• The municipality's financial regulations state who has the authority to sign agreements on behalf of the municipality.
• The municipality must have an overview of its own contracts and purchases. 
• The municipality must have routines that ensure compliance with the procurement processes and concluded agreements. 

Focus area 3: Social responsibility

Askøy municipality must take social responsibility by purchasing goods and services that are produced according to high ethical and social standards, even if this may involve increased costs.

In order to combat workplace crime and social dumping, Askøy municipality must, among other things, set the following requirements for its suppliers:

• Seriousness requirements within construction and other high-risk industries
• Requirements for wages and working conditions 
• Requirements for ethical trade
• The ILO's core conventions must be observed

The municipality must, when relevant, carry out a risk assessment to reveal whether the procurement may give rise to a risk of complicity in unethical actions, violation of human and employee rights, corruption or environmental damage.

When planning its procurement, Askøy municipality must take into account small and medium-sized businesses, including local ones, so that these are given a real opportunity to be awarded a contract.

There is a requirement that suppliers are approved apprenticeship companies, in industries where there is a shortage of apprenticeships.

Where appropriate, it must always be assessed whether competitions can be reserved for VTA companies.

It must always be assessed whether competitions within the area of ​​health and care services can be reserved for non-profit actors.

Focus area 4: Climate and environment

Acquisitions must be arranged so that they contribute to promoting climate-friendly solutions and avoid harmful environmental impact. Procurement must also support a circular economy and repair options to ensure a longer lifespan.

The municipality must use its purchasing power to set requirements that contribute to reducing the climate footprint. Such requirements can e.g. be:

• Environmental certification 
• Suppliers who perform services or deliver goods on Askøy use zero-emission vehicles
• Requirements for low climate footprints during production 
• Single-use plastic must not be used.

Implementation and follow-up of the procurement strategy

The municipal director is responsible for implementing the strategy. The procurement strategy is followed up through a concrete action plan.  

The municipal director at the sector heads is responsible for the procurement strategy being known to the organisation.

The procurement strategy must be available on Askøy municipality's website and in the municipality's internal quality system.

Sources of law

Act on public procurement

Regulation on public procurement

Regulation on procurement rules in the supply sector

Regulations on wages and working conditions in public contracts

Regulations on the Board of Appeal for public procurement

Act on the method of processing in administrative matters 

Act on the right of access to documents in public enterprises

4.1. Explanations:

Public Procurement Act §6, which implements ILO Convention No. 94, safeguards international working life standards in the municipality's procurement. 

The following appears in Askøy municipality's ESPD rejection reasons:

Violation of the regulations on the environment

Is the supplier known to have committed a breach of provisions on the environment as they appear in national law, the relevant announcement or procurement documents or Article 18 (2) of Directive 2014/24/EU.

Breach of the provisions on social conditions

Is the supplier known to have committed a breach of provisions on social conditions as they appear in national law, the relevant announcement or procurement documents or Article 18 (2) of Directive 2014/24/EU.

Breach of the provisions on working conditions

Is the supplier known to have committed a breach of provisions on working conditions as they appear in national law, the relevant announcement or procurement documents or Article 18 (2) of Directive 2014/24/EU.

This means that the following directive is followed:

Directive 2014/24/eu of the European parliament and of the council of 26 February 2014 on public procurement and repealing Directive 2004/18/EC

The directive again safeguards the following ILO core conventions, in addition to several conventions: 

List of international social and environmental conventions referred to in article 18(2) 

• ILO Convention 87: freedom of association and protection of the right to organize
• ILO Convention 98; Implementation of the principles for the right to organize and the right to conduct collective negotiations
• ILO Convention 29; Forced labour 
• ILO Convention 105; Abolition of forced labour
• ILO Convention 138; Minimum age for access to employment
• ILO Convention 111: Discrimination in employment and occupation 
• ILO Convention 100; equal pay for male and female workers for work of equal value 
• ILO Convention 182; prohibition of and immediate measures to abolish the worst forms of child labour
• the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer and the associated Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer; 
• The Basel Convention concerning the control of the transport of hazardous waste
• Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Compounds (Stockholm POPs Convention); 
• The Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Authorization Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides Traded on the World Market (UNEP/FAO) (The PIC Convention) Rotterdam, 10 September 1998, and its 3 regional Protocols.