As public procurement contracts are very important in the economy of our sector, the European Cleaning and Facility Services Industry (EFCI) strongly engages at all political levels, together with its member organisations, to promote good contracting practices in the cleaning and facility services industry. EFCI’s thorough work on the topic of public procurement focuses on informing, raising awareness and advocating for public and private buyers to choose quality services and use strategic procurement to address common goals including social responsibility, employment, environmental protection, public health and other social and environmental considerations
EFCI’s fruitful collaboration with UNI Europa (European confederation of Unions in the services sector) resulted in 2016 in the jointly developed guide for private and public organisations awarding contracts for public services, developed with the financial support of the European Commission. Its aim is to assist buyers in their tendering process by highlighting the benefits of choosing quality services.
The guide covers all aspects of tendering cleaning services:
• Defining the buyers and their needs, and what a quality service would look like for them;
• Drawing up a procurement procedure where these quality elements are reflected;
• Comparing tender submissions through a practical tool, whereby different bids can be evaluated against the originally selected quality criteria;
• Evaluating bids using the selected quality criteria, and selection of the bid with the highest quality.
The consequences of selecting lowest bid instead of best value are twofold: unfair competition is created among employers, which can contribute to adverse conditions for cleaners. Furthermore, the lowest bidders may not be respecting wage legislation, social contributions or tax obligations. Collective agreements and national labour laws must always be considered.
Are you interested in the guide? Please contact the Secretariat for further details.