Sustainable Public Procurement: Towards a low‐carbon economy

81 Sustainable Public Procurement: Towards a low carbon economy
well, whereby under the General Finance Rules 2005 and
Delegation of Financial Powers Rules of 1978, it lays down certain
generic guiding principles, which are to be adopted by the
procuring agencies. Other than the DGSD and MoF, another
institution that has a key role in influencing procurement policies
and practices of companies and departments of the government
is the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC). The CVC is the apex
vigilance institution working towards a corruption free public
service and in order to maintain such standards, it lays down
guidelines on tenders, procurement of works, goods and services.
Based on the abovementioned rules and guidelines pertaining to
procurement and delegation financial power rules, companies
have their own procurement manuals which define the scope,
powers of officials, checks and balances, and different criteria to
be followed at different stages of procurement. Generally
speaking every company has its own structure and procedure of
procurement; however the procedure is largely common except
for some variations specific to the industry, goods, and internal
organizational structure. The first round of stakeholder survey
was undertaken to gauge the interests and concerns of firms and
government departments with reference to their procurement
process and to assess the feasibility of introducing SPP at the firm
level within the Indian context. Based on our first six months of
consultations, details about the kinds of procurement, structure
and procedure have been discussed in Chapter II.
Consultations with the companies suggested that the criteria
followed by them while evaluating their bid are fairly clear and
generally governed by three key factors – technical requirements/
performance, cost, and timely delivery. All the companies,
whether public or private irrespective of their nature of activities,
whether large manufacturing, energy, or service industry, rate
technical performance very high and ensure that the items
procured by them are able to meet the technical parameters
required and time schedules. Cost, both at the time of purchase
and over the life term of the product procured is instrumental in
making a procurement decision. It was found that in most of the
companies consulted that although the former was considered
more regularly, in certain circumstances, the latter also played a
determining role. However, in companies like BHEL and IOCL it
observed that energy efficiency is used as a general criterion in
their procurement system. Environmental and social criteria are
also a part of procurement system, albeit not always and mostly
dealt with in an informal and ad hoc manner.
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