SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Feb. 4 (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Cabildo de Tenerife has included new social and environmental criteria in the process of awarding public contracts with the aim of prioritizing employment and promoting the access of SMEs and social and solidarity economy companies to new tenders.
The Second Vice President and Minister of the Presidency, Finance and Modernization, Berta Pérez, explained that in order to facilitate both SMEs and social enterprises access to public contracts, the Cabildo has agreed to introduce various clauses aimed both at providing support technical and to make contracting conditions more flexible.
In this context, Berta Pérez pointed out that this year it is planned to develop various training and advice actions with the aim, among others, of guaranteeing that SMEs and social enterprises can submit their requests and offers in electronic format.
At the same time, it is planned to adapt both the economic and temporal dimension of the contracts and incorporate other changes related to the solvency requirements that SMEs must present, the reduction of guarantees or the terms for the payment of invoices, among other criteria. .
These new guidelines, which were approved by the Governing Council, make it possible to delve into the development of responsible public contracting, so that the contracts made by both the Cabildo and the public entities that depend on it have a greater impact on the socioeconomic development of the Island and especially in the maintenance and generation of employment.
In addition, the insular director of Human Resources and Legal Advice, Lidia Pereira, announced that once approved, the Cabildo will publish the Annual Contracting Plan both on the transparency platform and on the public sector contracting platform to facilitate its dissemination among the interested SMEs and companies.
Among the social criteria to which priority is given is the creation of employment for people with disabilities and other assumptions of people with difficulties in accessing the labor market. At the same time, the projects of those bidders who undertake to incorporate a greater number of people for their execution, as well as to maintain employment or promote female employment, as well as those who subcontract to special employment centers or insertion companies, will be valued.
As for the environmental award criteria, the incorporation of the commitment to use, during the execution of the contract, products whose commercialization and use have a lower impact on the environment and to promote the use of products with an ecological label stands out. At the same time, priority will be given to those projects that contribute to reducing water consumption and improving energy efficiency.
