ANALYSIS OF SUSTAINABILITY IN THE PUBLIC PROCUREMENT PROCESS: A CASE STUDY AT A FEDERAL EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION.
Sustainability. Sustainable Public Procurement. Sustainable Bidding. Sustainability Criteria.
The movement that began at the Stockholm Summit more than 50 years ago to encourage nations to reflect on the need to reconcile economic development and the conservation of natural resources culminated in the inclusion of the Brazilian Public Administration in the issue and the adoption of a legal framework on Sustainable Public Procurement. Sustainable Public Procurement, or Sustainable Bidding, is that which considers sustainable criteria when selecting the individual who will contract with the Administration. This study assessed the situation at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte regarding the adoption of sustainability in its tenders, by means of a documentary survey of the notices published between 2019 and 2022, in order to ascertain which were the main sustainability criteria used in the tender instruments, as well as a field survey of the requesting users of the institution's budget units, in order to ascertain the familiarity of the requesters of the tenders with the issue of sustainability. This is an applied study, descriptive in terms of its objectives, with a qualitative and quantitative approach. The bibliographical research sought to establish the theoretical basis for the research, with topics dedicated to Bids and Sustainability. The methodological roadmap for classifying sustainability criteria was based on legal regulations, such as laws, decrees, normative instructions, ordinances and sustainability guides from other bodies. We used the classification proposed by Silva (2014) and the dimensions of sustainability adopted by the United Nations in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: environmental, social and economic. Documentary research of the calls for tenders showed that the institution's practice is to adopt sustainability criteria in its tenders, with economic and environmental criteria prevailing. The field research revealed a lack of familiarity with sustainability issues on the part of civil servants requisitioning materials and services.