Public Procurement and Environmental Sustainability in Developing Countries: A South African Perspective

The concept of Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP) has attracted the interests of academics,
practitioners, policy makers and the media recently. The interest can be attributed to the strategic role
of purchasing and supply chain as a lever for sustainable development. Despite the enormous amount
of funds spent on public procurements in South Africa annually, tender irregularities, corrupt practices,
non-compliance and lack of knowledge, casts doubts on its role in fostering sustainable development.
An in-depth literature review on SPP implementation was adopted to analyse the manner in which
sustainability could be realised through regulation, implementation and monitoring compliance of
relevant environmental policy instruments. This approach is used to determine how due consideration
of sustainable procurement has been used as a tool to enhance social, economic and environmental
sustainability. This article notes that in many developed and developing countries, the dare need of
technical and management competence, cultural assimilation, high costs of funding sustainable
procurement projects and transparency on the part of managers among others are sighted as factors
plaguing the growth of sustainable procurement practices in most institutions.
Further, this paper puts forth the argument that implementation of sustainable procurement policies
alone, will not necessarily help in the achievement of the developmental objectives, but due
consideration should be given to capacity building and collaboration with relevant units of government,
whilst also integrating social and economic policies, into the formulation of tender documents and
selection of suppliers. This paper posit that, to overcome these challenges faced by South Africa, it is
important that all stakeholders including the government, researchers and other agencies should
construct a synergy capable of addressing salient issues for progressive sustainable procurement
policies and actions, through the incorporation of sustainable procurement practices into the
mainstream of both the public and private organisations through relevant legislations, policies and
regulatory frameworks.