The Spanish Association for Standardisation, UNE, in collaboration with the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP), has organised a meeting with experts today to promote the recently published Standard UNE-EN 17687 Public Procurement. Integrity and accountability. Requirements and guidance. This standard provides requirements and guidelines with respect to integrity and accountability in public procurement processes, including from the identification of needs to the delivery of goods, services or work contracts.
Lack of commitment to the fundamental principles of integrity, accountability and transparency in public procurement can create room for corruption, undermine the effectiveness of public services, and negatively impact citizens and the value for money of public spending. Risks related to corruption and fraud are important aspects of public procurement around the world.
As many integrity and accountability risks have been identified for procuring organisation to identify and assess, the new standard devotes a chapter to risk management during the public procurement process.
Another relevant aspect of the UNE-EN 17687 Standard is the chapter dedicated to staff, aligned with the National Public Procurement Strategy.
This document has been drawn up within the European standardisation body, CEN, of which UNE is the Spanish member. The work of monitoring and influencing the development of the document has been carried out in the UNE subcommittee on Public Procurement, which is part of the structure of the UNE Committee on Ethics, Governance and Social Responsibility of Organisations (CTN 165), in which around 50 organisations from the public and private sectors participate.
UNE standards are of great strategic use to public administrations in terms of policy deployment and in the development of compliant regulations.
The meeting was attended by Luis Rodulfo, vice-president of UNE and president of CEPCO; Paloma García, Director of Standardisation Programmes and Stakeholder Engagement at UNE; Adrián Dorta, Deputy Director of the FEMP Procurement Centre; Marta Fernández, Head of the UNE Committee on Ethics, Governance and SR of organisations; Alberto Palomar, Chairman of CTN 165 at UNE Lawyer in the Area of Administrative Law at Broseta Abogados; and Juan Barberán, Procurement Director of the Public Business Corporation of Navarra and member of the CTN UNE 165 SC5.
