Keeping a healthy environmental background is one of the key requirements and principles of the European Union. Transparent Green Procurement is one of the important components of the EU environmental program.
GPP is actually a tendering process in which government institutions prefer goods or services with a minimal impact on the environment. That is environmentally harmless, or economical.
“Slovakia is one of the first countries of Central Europe to adopt the relevant regulations and has been successfully continuing this practice for more than 10 years. Cooperation with Slovakia on this issue is the best option for us. We seem to have a past, a similar mentality and problems, especially in the area of the environment. Knowledge of our Slovak colleagues is very useful to us, probably even more than the experience of other European countries, where the path to green public procurement is very different from ours”, – says Igor Comendo, NGO GoLOCAL Director.
According to the project manager of the Slovak Center for Communication and Development (SCCD) Klara Tokhtova, the target audience of the project is not the decision of the state authorities.
“Public authorities are probably the largest consumers of resources. After all, there are thousands of office buildings that use electricity, water, paper, utensils and other goods in the work process. And if such institutions begin to apply the green procurement principle – for example, buying office paper from the counterpart, or energy efficient light bulbs instead of ordinary, even detergents with a minimum content of harmful substances. As a result, the country will be able to save an enormous amount of resources, reduce the need for product disposal and thus have a positive impact on the environment “, – assures Ms. Klara.
Kyiv Region is the most progressive region, which should give examples to other regions for the implementation of various reforms. Interestingly, according to the monitoring carried out by GoLOCAL in the framework of the project, more than half of Kyiv oblast officials in charge of tender processes do not have a clear understanding of what is a GPP and what is its benefit to the state. And, accordingly, they do not use the principles of eco-conscientiousness in their work. Therefore, GoLOCAl, together with SCCD, decided to start the project here.
The project Green Public Procurement: Transfer of Experience from Slovakia to Ukraine is primarily educational, and aims to inform the public and state authorities as much as possible about the importance of using green procurement tools and the powerful impact of this process on the environment in Ukraine. Therefore, in the framework of the project, the Slovak experts together with the experts NGO GoLOCAL will develop an educational course for representatives of government bodies responsible for tender procurement. Within the course, seminars and trainings will be held, and an on-line course on green procurement will be launched. The Slovak side will also be provided with expert assessments of the relevant legislative acts of Ukraine and recommendations for the implementation of European legislation.
In order to maximally adapt the educational course to the realities of Ukraine, the Slovak delegation visited Kyiv where a number of meetings were held with representatives of the economic departments of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, the Ministry of Economy, the Kyiv Oblast State Administration and the Municipality of Bila Tserkva City.
Particular attention should be paid to the meeting of Slovaks with ProZorro public e-procurement system specialists, which, without exaggeration, will be the most important element in the implementation of the mechanism of the GPP.
The Slovak experts were pleasantly impressed by the willingness of state authorities to assist in the implementation of the project, as well as the fact that Ukraine, for its part, has already begun active work towards the GPP.
“It’s great that we will have the opportunity to combine our joint efforts and achievements, thus doubling the chances of implementation of environmental procurement instruments in Ukraine,” – said Zuzana Jezerska, communications expert and SCCD Director.
It is expected that Slovak and Ukrainian experts on green procurement during February-May 2018 will conduct training seminars for the employees of the municipality of Bila Tserkva and region level authorities as well as specialists of central state institutions responsible for procurement.
In addition, according to the results of the seminars and preliminary testing by Ukrainian officials, an on-line course for all specialists will be launched without any restrictions on specialization who wish to learn about the GPP mechanism and use it in future work.
The Green Public Procurement Project: Transfer of Experience from Slovakia to Ukraine is supported by the SlovakAid Foundation.
