Iceland 1
The Act on Public Procurement № 120/2016 of Iceland includes the following RBC objectives – additional frameworks apply, depending on the RBC objective:
Environment
Chapter IX of the Act on Climate Action № 70/2012 includes provisions for the public procurement of energy efficient vehicles. The Climate Action Plan for 2018-2030 includes provisions for purchasing green vehicles as well and the Procurement Policy that will be soon issued and called “Sustainable and economical government procurement”.
Labour rights
This aspect is also covered by in the Cabinet Direction on Supply Chain Responsibility, developed in co-operation with different stakeholders.
Gender
Act № 10/2008 on Equal Status and Rights of Women and Men requires that economic operators or public agencies with more than 25 employees provide a special certification to prove equal pay for women and men (Icelandic Standard ÍST 85).
Integrity
This aspect is also included in other Icelandic legal frameworks, such as the second chapter of the Administration Act №. 37/1993 on ethics for public buyers issued by the Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs in Iceland, which specifies the good practices for procurement officials.
Strategic frameworks of Ríkiskaup, the Icelandic CPB:
The Green Steps Program is a programme developed for government agencies in Iceland with the overall aim of decreasing environmental impacts from daily operations in the public sector. The participating agencies to this program must follow five different steps. Ríkiskaup has taken four steps and will soon take the fifth step by, among other things, aligning climate policy with the environmental policy and setting up an action plan related to it.
Tender phase
When purchasing works, supplies or services with specific environmental or social characteristics, the Icelandic contracting authorities may require specific labels as a means of proof that the required conditions are fulfilled.
Ríkiskaup has a set of requirements regarding labour rights for procurement documents. One of the requirements is for the main contractor to ensure that all workers or staff members receive fair wages, and that they benefit from their rights in accordance to collective agreements.
Ríkiskaup instructs project managers to conduct research about the awarded companies, to ensure absence of exclusion grounds, such as human rights violations.
Ríkiskaup’s quality management system is certified in accordance with ISO 9001:2015 Certification and they assure the equal wage management system with ÍST 85:2012 Certification.
The environmental, personnel and general data protection regulation (GDPR) policies as well as the code of ethics are open to employees in Ríkiskaup‘s quality manual.
Twice a year, Ríkiskaup holds internal and external training for their staff, buyers and sellers in the University of Iceland, in which the RBC objectives are included in the learning program.
← 1. This country fact sheet has been drafted based on the information provided by the Icelandic CPB Rikiskaup.