Disseminating and promoting the use of the standards in public procurement has been and is one of the objectives of the Spanish Association for Standardization, UNE, since Law 9/2017 on Public Sector Contracts was published in 2017. Regulations that promote the use of technical standards to define the specific technical requirements in the terms and conditions, as well as the use of labelling (certificates) and accreditation.
"In recent years we have worked to promote the use of standards in public procurement and have developed different activities along these lines which have been integrated into our strategy and management plan, seeking alliances and supporting our members and Public Administrations. Technical standards are strategic allies for Public Administratrations", according to Javier García, Managing Director of UNE.
One of the first activities was the integration of UNE into the Joint Initiative on Standardization at European level, offering a course at the National Institute of Public Administration (INAP) and publishing a Guide for the use of technical standards and accreditation in public procurement, both in collaboration with the National Accreditation Agency, ENAC.
Together with ENAC, we also organized the online workshop Quality infrastructure as a tool for procurement documents, the first edition of which 150 people signed up for and the second edition is scheduled for April.
More recently, UNE took part in the Advanced Specialization Course in Public Procurement, organized by the Institute of Tax Studies (IEF), an agency under the Ministry of Finance. A practical workshop was held during this course on the use of Quality Infrastructure in procurement contract documents, which was very well reviewed by the 20+ high-level officials who attended.
In the area of regulatory development, the draft standard PNE-FprEN 17687 "Public procurement" will be published shortly. Integrity and accountability. Requirements with guidance".
