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James Debono
The government intends to take consider environmental criteria when awarding public tenders. A document setting the guidelines for the new system of green public procurement system was issued during yesterday’s Greening The Economy conference.
Through green public procurement public authorities integrate environmental criteria into all stages of their procurement process by seeking the solutions that have the least possible impact on the environment.
The new system will be introduced gradually and will be fully in place in 2010.
The system will initially apply to construction work, transport, cleaning products, IT devices and paper but could be applied to other products and services.
The Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry for Finance Tonio Fenech acknowledged that the new system could result in an increase in government costs citing this as a reason why the system is being introduced gradually.
But according to Environment Minister George Pullicino, since the government is the largest consumer in the country, green procurement could result in an increased demand which would lower prices for environmentally friendly products and services.
“An increased demand for recycled paper by the government would inevitably affect its price,” said Pullicino.
Pullicino also hinted that the government intends to reconsider the complete decentralisation of waste collection which was devolved to local councils in the mid-1990s.
Rather than reverting back to a centralised state managed system, Pullicino is proposing that neighbouring local councils should team up together by issuing tenders covering waste collections in an entire region.
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